Having set up its 40th exclusive store, tile and sanitaryware player Somany Ceramics Limited (SCL) is now ramping up manufacturing capacities to meet the growing demand.
To begin with, the company is investing Rs 7-10 crore for adding capacity of around 7,000 sq mt per day at its units in Morbi.
"Within a year, the capacity at Morbi will be around 14,000 sq mt per day. We had also expanded our Haryana plant and will be adding capacity at Kadi plant as well. All of these efforts is towards increasing our market share and meeting growing demand at the retail level,” said GG Trivedi, chief executive officer, SCL.
Currently, of the overall Rs 15000 crore tile and sanitaryware market, SCL holds an eight per cent share. However, by the end of financial year 2011-12, the company is looking at a Rs 1000 crore turnover. The company is also ramping up its distribution channel by opening up exclusive stores across the country.
“Currently we have around 1,150 direct dealers and another 5,000 sub-dealers to which we will be adding more. We are also opening up exclusive stores in several parts of the country. Through such efforts, by the end of financial year 2011-12, we are looking at a turnover of about Rs 1,000 crore," said Trivedi.
Recently, the company opened its 40th exclusive store in Ahmedabad. Spread in an area of over 900 sq ft, the showroom will offer a wide product range and mock displays. The showroom exhibits a wide range of imported tile collections from across the world through state-of-the-art mock-up displays to give customers a feel of how each tile will look in its actual use.
Somany Global Exclusive showrooms are located all over the country, including key cities like Jaipur, Cochin, Jamshedpur, Faridabad, Gurgaon, New Delhi and many other showrooms are about to be opened in leading centres soon. These showrooms cater to high-end customers offering imported tiles as well as exclusive sanitary ware.
The tile prices range between Rs 40 per sq ft to Rs 450 per sq ft, whereas the sanitaryware range is priced between Rs 2,000 to Rs 20,000.
Meanwhile, the company has bought an additional land near our existing plant at Kadi where it will begin work on doubling up the capacity which is currently at 15,000 sq mt per day at an investment of Rs 60-65 crore.
According to Trivedi, within next two years, SCL is looking at close to 100,000 sq mt per day of tile manufacturing capacity.
