Refrigerators from Maharaja

Firm plans launch by October

This festival season, the usual cut-throat competition among consumer durable companies is expected to have an extra edge. Harish Kumar's Maharaja Appliances is poised to launch refrigerators meant for the mass market in October this year.

The company also plans to launch appliances, such as water heaters and gas stoves, which so far have largely been a prerogative of the unorganised sector.

The refrigerators, set to roll out of the company's Badi plant in Himachal Pradesh, which is building a capacity of 400,000 a year, will have a capacity of 186 litres and cost Rs 6,000 a piece, unless some drastic changes take place in the prices of inputs such as steel.

The plant, an old Allwyn facility taken over by Maharaja, has been set up at a cost of Rs 20 crore. Maharaja will leverage its backward integration, such as in plastic moulding, and the low taxation structure in Badi, to lower the operations cost.

"We are targeting the mass market," cites company sources, adding, "We are also going to use the strength of our brand in the unorganised sector products." The privately-owned company earned a turnover of Rs 150 crore in 2004-05.

In a recent study by Francis Kanoi Marketing Research, the Maharaja Whiteline brand was declared the strongest among small home appliances, beating rivals like Sumeet, Kanchan, Philips, Usha, National and Prestige.

Besides, Kumar is also planning to become an active player in the audio-visual segments too, following his acquisition of 50 per cent equity in Beltek India Ltd. He has already been designated as Beltek's managing director.

Maharaja also plans to innovate on some of its existing products like food producers and mixer grinders.