Eureka Forbes expands into new marts

Eureka Forbes, known for its water purifier brand Aquaguard, now plans to expand into the residential commercial and rural water purification market.

It has formed a joint venture with GE Water & Process Technologies, a unit of GE Infrastructure, to address the residential water solutions market in India.

The newly-formed entity, Infinite Water Solutions, will leverage GE's technological expertise and Eureka Forbes' market acumen to offer water solutions.

Marzin Shroff, vice-chairman, Infinite Water Solutions, said, "The Indian residential water purification market has developed as a point-of-use market. The company will now tap point-of-entry segments such as residential commercial and rural regions."

The company is targeting residential complexes and commercial establishments such as hotels to enter the residential commercial segment, which is dominated by the unorganised players. Shroff stated that residential commercial segment offers immense potential as most of the complexes either get municipal or tanker water.

In India, nearly eighty per cent of diseases are water-borne and 60 per cent of the hospital beds cater to patients afflicted with such diseases.

The Indian residential water purifier market is pegged at Rs 1,500 crore with a 15 per cent growth rate. The penetration of water purifiers is 40 per cent in small towns compared with 15 per cent in the metros.

Infinite Water Solutions has set up a greenfield facility Aquamall at Dehradun at an investment of Rs 17 crore to manufacture GE's home reverse osmosis membranes in India.