Its proposed plant on a 50-acre plot near Bengaluru would be its first outside north India
February 22, 2016
Consumer electrical products maker Havells India Ltd plans to set up a new manufacturing unit on the outskirts of Bengaluru at a cost of Rs.1,059 crore, chairman Anil Rai Gupta said. Delhi-based Havells has 11 plants across seven locations, and its proposed plant on a 50-acre plot near Bengaluru would be its first outside north India.
The plan comes at a time when consumer electrical companies are moving towards “smart products,” fusing advanced electronics into conventional appliances. Showcased at the recent ‘Elecrama-2016’, an exposition of companies in the electrical sector staged in Bengaluru, were products such as bulbs that can change colour or intensity, geysers and fans that can switch on and off at pre-programmed times and solar street lights—all taking instructions from a laptop of smartphone using the Internet.
Conventional home electrical products such as switches or fans are on their way out, Gupta said in an interview on the sidelines of Elecrama-2016.
Electrical firms are trying to replace their conventional product range with ones that can be pre-programmed, contribute to energy efficiency and connected using the solutions such as the Internet of Things (IoT), says Gupta.
IoT is defined as a worldwide network of “things” that include identifiable devices, appliances, equipment, machinery of all forms and sizes with the intelligence to seamlessly connect, communicate and control or manage each other to perform a set of tasks with minimum intervention.
Havell expects the next stage of growth to be powered by such products, leading it to the south of the country, especially Bengaluru, to tap the region’s engineering talent, said Gupta.
“We need a lot of talent having software capabilities and understanding of the overall engineering capabilities to develop such smart products,” he said.
Havells manufactures goods ranging from cables and lighting products to switches and motors, among others, for both domestic and industrial applications. The company earned Rs.8,000 crore of revenue in the fiscal year ended March 2015.
