French home appliances maker Groupe SEB plans to introduce 60 new products this year from its Indian brand Maharaja Whiteline to expand presence, specially in East and North East regions.
The company, which had earlier announced Rs 100 crore investment over a period of three years, is also gearing up to bring its global brands such as Krups, Rowenta and Tefal in India by 2016.
"We have launched 70 products last year and this year we would have 60 products...We are coming with a full new range for Maharaja," Groupe SEB VP Marketing Emmanuel Serot Almeras told PTI.
He said the plan was to have a total of 160 products by the end of this year with about 30 existing products to be retained.
Commenting on network expansion plans, he said Groupe Seb India is aiming to double its distribution in the East to bring it to the same level as in the North.
"This means increasing from 3,000 to 6,000 dealer shops. We have had great success in Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and West Bengal in 2014. We plan to accelerate this growth and we are starting business in North East in 2015," he said.
On sales growth, he said the company grew by over 40 per cent against the industry growth of 10 per cent.
"We have ambitions to maintain that in 2015 through brand repositioning, new products and through new distribution channels," Almeras said, without sharing the revenue value.
Groupe SEB had acquired controlling stake in Maharaja Whiteline in April 2014 from its promoter.
Almeras said Groupe SEB would focus on Maharaja brand for non-metro places and would bring its global brands to fill up the gaps in metros.
"Maharaja has a good presence in tier II and III places. To target the metro cities, Groupe SEB has an opportunity to come up with additional brands next year from our international portfolio as Rowenta and Tefal," he said.
Besides, Groupe SEB is looking to expand its air cooler business and water heater business after gaining traction in the juicer, mixer grinder segment with the Maharaja brand.
On being asked that whether the international brands would be manufactured at Maharaja's plant, Almeras said: "It would depend on the category and Indian know-how. Everything which we can manufacture here would be manufactured here."
Maharaja Whiteline has a manufacturing unit at Baddi in Himachal Pradesh.
Groupe SEB began in 1857. It has operations in almost 150 countries. It had turnover of Rs 35,000 crore in 2013 and is a world leader in small domestic equipment with 25,000 employees.
