HYDERABAD: Blue Star India on Tuesday said it will commission its greenfield plant at Sri City in Andhra Pradesh within the next three years. The proposed plant will have an installed capacity of 5 lakh units per annum and will start production by FY22, said B Thiagarajan, joint managing director, Blue Star India.
Speaking to media after launching 75 new models of room air conditioners, marking Blue Star’s 75 years of operations, Thiagarajan explained that the company had already acquired land at Sri City and construction activities at the plant would start in FY21 and the eventual commissioning of the unit is expected by FY22.
Thiagarajan said the company was considering increasing its investments to Rs 50 crore in FY20 as against Rs 40 crore in FY19 on new product development as well as on research and design initiatives. In order to expand its footprint, the air conditioning and commercial refrigeration giant is planning to increase its exclusive brand stores to 250 across India by FY20. Currently, Blue Star operates over 200 such outlets.
Meanwhile, the new range of energy-efficient inverter ACs are expected to increase the company’s market share in the room AC market to 13.5 per cent in FY20 from the current 12.8 per cent. Interestingly, inverter air conditioners comprise a lion’s share accounting for over 52 per cent sales.
On the market in Telangana, Thiagarajan said, “In terms of execution speed, growth, order inflow, Telangana stands number one in the country. There has been a significant growth in the region. The market size of Telangana is nearly 2 lakh this year out of the country’s total of 55 lakh.”