Whirpool to pumb $20 million in India

Kolkata, Sep 30: Whirlpool Corporation, the home appliances major plans to pump USD 20 million in next 18 months to meet growing demands for durable products, which have become the main revenue earners for the multinational.

Whirpool India vice-president Tamal Kanti Saha, while launching a new range of products, including refrigerators, airconditioners, water purifiers, microwave ovens and room heaters, said the money would be invested for making India-specific durable products in the next 12 to 18 months. The money would go to three plants of Faridabad, Pondicherry and Pune.

He said the company's priority was to give special attention in designing India-specific home appliances with in-built support system so that recurring costs remained within limit.

Denying that the company was going to hike prices of its durables because of price escalation of raw materials, Mr Saha said the company was not thinking along that line since prices of petroleum were going down.

''We are going to do our best to control the prices. In the case of some items, the prices remain same while in some other items, we have developed in-built system and the cost goes to buyers,'' Mr Saha said.

He said the company posted a net profit of Rs 44.57 crore for the first quarter of the fiscal 2008-09, a 198 per cent increase over the same period last year. Mr Saha said the company's total sales for this fiscal would go beyond Rs 2,000 crore.

Whirlpool India's turnover for April 2007-March 2008 stood at Rs 1,743.42 crore, a growth of 21 per cent over the same period last year.

UNI