Chennai-based Nippo Batteries is planning to launch appliances batteries in the coming months, said a senior company official.
Nippo, which has around 32 per cent market share in the lighting battery industry, has set a target to grow by 3-4 per cent in value terms in the next two years on the back of new launches.
The dry cell battery industry as a whole declined 5.8 per cent as against three per cent in the previous year. The sale of dry cell batteries in the industry decreased to 1,984 million pieces from 2,174 million, said Justice S Natarajan, chairman, Nippo Batteries, said addressing shareholders at the annual general meeting here on Friday.
Nippo’s production too dropped to 653 million pieces from 668 million and sales to 642 million from 670 million pieces.
The company manufactures 700 million pieces per annum. However, the capacity utilisation is 75-80 per cent mainly due to a drop in demand. The dry cell battery industry is estimated at Rs 600 crore.
Meanwhile, the company is also planning to set up a windfarm in Andhra Pradesh. “We have land in Andhra Pradesh and are studying the prospects for setting up a windfarm,” said M Sankara Reddy, chief financial officer, Nippo Batteries.
The company currently operates a windfarm at Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu with a capacity of 1.5 mega watt.
Last year, the windfarm business contributed Rs 1.32 crore to the company's overall turnover
