Tile manufacturing company Orient Ceramics and Industries is scouting for a European business partner for a possible joint venture.
“Since, European tile designs and products are considered the best, we are looking for a technical collaboration with a European company, probably Spanish or Italian,” Orient Ceramics executive director Madhur Daga told Business Standard.
The company, which is eyeing a turnover of Rs 235 crore in the current fiscal, has a market share of 7 per cent in the roughly Rs 3,000 organised Indian tile market.
The Delhi-based company also exports to some South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries and plans to expand the export base by setting up another tile manufacturing plant in Andhra Pradesh. It currently has a unit at Sikandarabad in western Uttar Pradesh, besides three contract manufacturing facilities elsewhere.
The company expects its recently launched collection - Europa Designs - for the premium segment to fuel future growth. “Europa has been well received in the Indian market and we are confident of cornering a 50 per cent market share in the premium tile segment by the end of fiscal 2010, which is dominated by much expensive imported products,” he added.
Daga said the slowdown had not impacted the tile market greatly and the growth was coming from tier II and III towns such as Jaipur, Lucknow, Pune, Jalandhar and Indore. “Our analysis is that is that the people are now budget conscious, but the construction activity is on,” he said.
Meanwhile, the company plans to open almost 180 shop-in-shop units to showcase Europa Designs in the next 18 months. It has a network of 1,200 retailers and 4,000 secondary retailers across India.