Chinese consumer electronics major Haier Group is looking at India as one of the most "strategic market" globally, and expects the local unit to become a billion dollar company by 2020 and be among top three players in home appliance segment in next two years, largely driven by higher sales, said a top company official.
Haier India, expects to continue its high growth momentum from all verticals and is also extending its product portfolio by expanding into segments such as smart homes solutions and smart laundry business.
Besides, the Qingdao headquartered company, which owns six other global brands besides Haier, is also mulling to introduce some of them in India after 2020, to tap the growing opportunities premium segment.
"Our target is to be one billion dollar company by 2020," Haier India President Eric Briganza told PTI.
Haier India, which follows January-December fiscal calendar, had posted a net revenue of around Rs 3,500 crore in 2018, by registering a growth of around 50 per cent and is now among the top five durables brands in India in the categories which it operate, he added.
"Now we are targeting to be third largest brand in the home appliances by 2020," Briganza said adding "we are aiming to close 2019, with a year-on-year growth of 35 per cent."
Haier is presently investing around Rs 3,000 crore to set up its second manufacturing unit at Greater Noida, UP, where it expects to start production by the end of 2020, to meet its growing sales demand.
Two years, back Haier has already invested around Rs 600 crore to expand the manufacturing capacity of its Pune-based unit.
"India is the most strategic market for us. We are confident about about it and are investing," said Song Yujun, VP, Global Appliances Haier Group and Managing Director, Haier South and South East Asia.
Presently, India is the highest contributing foreign market for the brand Haier products, he said adding that it may introduce some more brands from its portfolio in coming years to cater the premium segment.
"We have plans to introduce some of the brands in India to cater the segmented markets," said Yunjun, without suggesting the name of probable brands.
Besides Haier, the group has six other brands - Casarte, Leader, US-based GE Appliances, Fisher & Paykel from New Zealand, AQUA from Japan and Italy-based Candy.
Haier India, besides appliances, is also expanding its IoT enabled public laundry services here, which would be a part of its service revenue.
"By 2019 end, we will expand to 100 campuses in India which will have IoT enabled public laundries," said Yujun.
Last year, Haier India had introduced first IoT enabled public laundry service at Indraprastha College for Women, Delhi University.
Controlled completely through an app, users can reserve, schedule, monitor and pay for the services from their phones. Each washing machine is connected to the cloud and can be individually managed from the app.
Haier India also plans to to open Smart Homes solution in all leading metros. It had opened first smart home solutions store in New Delhi in November 2018.
"With this step, we took a step closer in making our consumers' lifestyle future ready," Briganza added.
In 2018, Haier Group's global turnover was 266.1 billion yuan. In overseas markets, Haier has 12 industrial parks and 54 factories
Haier India's Pune plant has capacity to roll out 1.8 million refrigerators, 0.5 million units each of - washing machines, ACs, TVs and water heaters annually.
The company has a network of 17,000 dealers across India, in which around 2,000 are direct dealers.
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