Khaitan forays into pressure cooker mkt

Khaitan Electricals Ltd, which diversified into home appliances and water pumps, is eyeing 10 per cent of the pressure cooker market this year with its newly-launched pressure cookers.

The company will provide products in both the categories, aluminum stainless steel outerlid cookers, and later on inner lid stainless steel and aluminum cookers will be added.

The company officials are positive that Khaitan will be able to bag a substantial market share in the next two years.

Talking to Business Standard at the launch of its range of the outer lid pressure cookers, Girish Kakkad, Regional Manager (Gujarat) said, "The company is planning to become a total kitchen appliances provider and the addition of pressure cookers is one more step towards this as we already have processing appliances like mixers and blenders in our product range."

On the pressure cooker range, Kakkad said, "There are two majors, Hawkins and Prestige, in the country with decades of experience in this product. We have no plans to compete with them in the first year. We will be an alternative in this segment. However, we are aiming to bag 10 per cent of the market share this year itself. The total market in the country is 30 to 40 lakh pressure cooker units per year. We will take 10 per cent of that share in the first year. However, in the next two years we will try to become a leading company in this segment with a substantial market share in our hands."

However, the company aims to focus on the Gujarat market in the first year and it accounts for 10 per cent of the total pressure cooker market in the country.

The company has already launched aluminum and stainless steel upper lid range of cookers in the market and plans to launch inner lid aluminum and stainless steel pressure cookers in June, he said.

The Khaitan pressure cookers (aluminum outer lid) are priced between Rs 700 to Rs 1,320 while stainless steel outer lid cookers are priced between Rs 1,530 and Rs 2,050.