Part of the company's Rs 100 crore capex earmarked in the ongoing fiscal, WCCL is setting up a new plant near Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia for manufacturing of toothpaste. This recently launched product will be under the umbrella of Safi brand, which has a range of products of skin-care segment.
The capex this year also includes the expansion of the capacity of Unza's sachet manufacturing plant on the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. Wipro has also set aside funds for setting up an aerosol plant at Salatiga in Central of Java in Indonesia. The aerosol spray are vital systems for dispensing of liquid particles in the form of aerosol mist, and are widely used in perfume cans, said Vineet Agrawal, president, Wipro Consumer Care & Lighting.
In the quarter ended June 30, 2008, WCCL reported a revenue of Rs 513 crore with a YoY growth of 119 per cent. Unza contributed about 40 per cent to its revenue, while the rest are from Wipro's traditional brands.
In domestic market, Santoor continues to be a primary revenue driver for the company by contributing almost 42 per cent to its revenue. Lighting and furniture contribute about 14 and 10 per cent of the company's revenues in India respectively.
In India, Agrawal said, the company is seeing growth beyond Santoor, its flagship soap brand. "The story this quarter, is that beyond the whole Santoor growth which we had, we have done outstandingly well in our office modular furniture business, where we launched new ranges. In commercial lighting, we are seeing strong growth in offerings for green buildings with our installations in 13 out of 19 green buildings in operation so far in India," Agrawal added.
With strong demand for its range of furniture products including work-stations and chairs, WCCL is setting up a new manufacturing facility at Waluj in Aurangabad where the company already has a plant for its lighting products. The plant that will be operational by the end of the year, will be in addition to its the company's existing furniture manufacturing plant in Chennai. Furniture business of the company grew by over 80 per cent in this quarter YoY.
The Chennai plant is now mostly doing the assembling of chairs. WCCL also plans to enhance the capacity of the Chennai plants. Besides, the company is also expanding the capacity of its toilet soap plant in Haridwar by adding one more line to it.
