Hitachi sees Gujarat unit as mother plant

Air conditioner major Hitachi Home and Life (India) Solutions is going to position its unit at Kadi in Gujarat as its mother plant. The move follows the commissiong of a new air-conditioner manufacturing unit at Parwanoo in Himachal Pradesh earlier this month.

Hitachi officials said here on Wednesday that having restructured the operations in a big way, the Kadi unit will now serve as the mother plant for the company.

While the Jammu plant will manufacture window and split air conditioners, the Parwanoo facility will manufacture high-end packaged air conditioners.

The company has recently decided to focus on high-end models and is looking at opportunities in the packaged air-conditioner segment.

"The plant at Kadi in Mehsana will now act as the mother plant, which, apart from production, will largely be involved in designing parts and other broad functions. The Parwanoo plant will basically cater to the high-end segment with the more sophisticated and packaged air conditioners being manufactured there. The Jammu plant will produce window and split air conditioners," Amit Doshi, vice president (marketing), said.

He added the company is gearing up for the summer season when A-C sales peak. "The growth in the market has been between 12 per cent and 14 per cent. With the new restructuring, we expect our growth to be in the range of 30 per cent this summer," Doshi said.

The new plant at Parwanoo will cater to the markets of Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal and New Delhi, which make up for over 41 per cent of the country's A-C market. Apart from this the plant will also feed exports to the Middle East, officials said.