Whirlpool Kitchen Products Segment to be Rs.100 Crore by 2017

Kolkata, Feb 11 (IANS) Consumer durables company Whirlpool India Ltd. Wednesday said it is expecting its built-in kitchen products segment to become a Rs.100 crore business by 2017 as high-end consumers are shifting to lifestyle-based home products.

"Within the next two years, revenues from these products (built-in kitchen) will account for Rs.100 crore and if the market and GDP (gross domestic product) growth remain as we expect, it will become a Rs.200 crore segment (for the company) by the next five years," said Rajiv Kapur, the company's vice president for new business and consumer interface.

The global company forayed into imported Italy-made products drawn on the lines of modular kitchen in 2008. It is now making serious attempts to gain market-share in India since the last two years.

"Our plant in Italy makes over half a million of these products a year for global consumption... we want to lead the way (in India) in this space," he said.

Kapur said the products, which include all kitchen essentials, are made for "anyone who can buy an apartment or house for Rs.one crore or more".

The company is targeting interior decorators and architects and is tying up with 50 to 60 of them across major cities. "In Delhi and Mumbai, the number of tie-ups will be higher then others," the company's vice president of south Asian strategy, Shantanu Das Gupta said.

The integrated modular kitchen products at present earn the company Rs.20 to 30 crore a year which is only one to two percent of the company's annual earnings.

"Based on current trends, our aim is to make it at least five percent by 2017," he said.

Gupta said the integrated kitchen products segment in India is growing at a pace of 20 to 25 percent annually.

The company expects to close the current fiscal year at 12 to 15 percent higher than the previous cycle. Last fiscal, its gross earning was Rs.359 crore.