"Yes, we will set up a production facility here in a bid to exploit the country's hand tool market," Stanley Works India's General Manager Kuldeep Bhardwaj told reporters here.
Earlier, the firm was looking to acquire a domestic hand tool company in order to set up its manufacturing base in the country. "But we have seen here that the size of Indian hand tool company is not large enough to meet our requirements. That is why we will now look an option to have our own facility," he said.
He, however, did not divulge the size of investment.
The US-based firm which entered Indian market last year, is quite upbeat over the growing hand tool market here and planning to focus on several industry verticals including automobile, aviation, construction, telecom and shipping to attain sales of $100 million by 2010.
"The size of hand tool market in India is $160 million and it is expected to grow at pace of 15 per cent this year," he said.
It also plans to open a warehouse in the North and two in Southern region so as to meet growing needs of hand tools for several applications. At present, Stanley Works has one warehouse in Delhi.
In order to strengthen its distribution network, the company has decided to appoint 80 more distributors which would help to strengthen its foothold in the country. Currently, it has 140 distributors covering 120 cities.
The firm today announced an opening of showroom here to tap Punjab market. As much as 30 per cent of its business comes from northern region.
