Orient Ceramics to foray into vitrified tiles market

To meet the growing demand of vitrified tiles in the domestic market, Delhi-based Orient Ceramics and Industries Ltd, manufacturer of ceramic tiles, is planning to foray into the production of vitrified tiles in the domestic market in the next six weeks.

Also, the company is scouting for space in Chandigarh and Punjab for opening the first company-owned showroom.

Speaking to Business Standard, Vice-President (Sales and Marketing) Sanjay Monga said, "Earlier, the market for vitrified tiles was very small but now it is expanding so in order to capitalise on the growing demand we are planning to launch soon."

"We have undertaken capacity expansion for manufacture of ceramic and vitrified tiles from 27,000 square metre per day to 40,000 square metre per day with a capital expenditure of Rs 50 crore. Approximately 6,000 square metre per day would be utilised for the manufacture of vitrified tiles," he added.

Commenting on future plan, he said: "We are aggressively expanding our product portfolio with long-term contract manufacturing agreements both in India and China. Within this fiscal, we expect to add approximately Rs 30 crore worth products including ceramic, vitrified tiles and fixtures and faucets, etc."

The company has a 6.5 per cent market share in the domestic market which is expected to raise by 2 per cent in 2007-08. Last year, the company ended the year with a gross turnover of Rs 200 crore as against previous year's figure of Rs 140 crore registering a growth of 43 per cent.

Also, the gross sales for the last quarter of the current financial year stood at Rs 59 crore compared to Rs 37 crore achieved in the corresponding quarter last year registering a growth of 58 per cent.

The company has a state-of-the-art environment-friendly manufacturing facilty at Sikandrabad, Uttar Pradesh.