Havell’s India to diversify
Kochi: Havell’s India Ltd, a Delhi-based electrical goods producer, plans to diversify. It will soon start production of fans and CF lamps. Havell’s, the flagship company of the QRG group, was in a consolidation mode and recently acquired Standard Electricals and Dukes Electronics. It was already into manufacture of switches, cables and miniature circuit breakers (MCB) and with its entry into the fan and lighting sections it would be able to offer a complete range of electrical goods, says Havell’s India marketing general manager V Jyotish Kumar.

The company had already bought the T-Series state-of-the-art fan factory at Noida and will be rolling out 4 lakh fans during the year. The company, which had bought the facility for Rs 10 crore, will come out with a whole range of fans in the economy and premium range. Havell’s had made another Rs 20-crore investment for putting up a factory at Faridabad for the production of CF lamps, fixtures and luminaries. The installed capacity of the plant will be 7 million pieces per annum. Initial production at the plant with technical collaboration with a South Korean firm will be to the tune of 2 million pieces when the unit became operational in October.
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Raymond may start denim plant in Bangladesh
Mumbai: Raymond Ltd is looking at Bangladesh as its next destination to set up a denim plant. A team of top executives, headed by wholetime director and group president Nabankur Gupta, is leaving for Bangladesh at the end of this month to study the market. A senior company official was quoted as saying that the company is always looking for opportunities but added that the Bangladesh trip is a routine business trip. “We outsource a lot of denim from Bangladesh and it is a big market for us,” he said.

The unit will help cater to the the Southeast Asia market apart from Bangladesh. Raymond Denim enjoys a substantial market share around the world. The company exports 55 per cent of its production to around 20 countries around the world. Raymond Ltd supplies to the UK, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Germany, Greece, Turkey, Poland, Lebanon, Egypt, the Middle East, Mauritius, the US, Colombia, Hong Kong, Korea, the Philippines, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Pakistan.
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Allied Domecq announces price reductions
Bangalore: Allied Domecq Spirits & Wine (India) Ltd has announced major price reductions for its brands in the Karnataka market. This follows the excise duty revision by the state government in the wake of the setting up of Karnataka Beverages Corporation (KBC). Allied now joins the bandwagon of sprits companies, which have come out with a new price structure for products. The company's bottled-in-India (or locally bottled) scotch offerings led by the Teachers brand have seen close to 50 per cent price reduction. Teachers Highland Cream (1,000 ml) will now cost Rs 1,000 as against the old price tag of Rs 2,000. The quart (750 ml) offering of the same will be cheaper at Rs 790 down from Rs 1,600.

Teachers Premium 12-year-old scotch will have a new price of Rs 1,100 as against Rs 1,952. The company's Old Smuggler scotch (750 ml) is down to Rs 596 from the earlier price of Rs 1,180. Srikant Illuri, chief executive officer, ADSWI, said: "The duty rationalisation announced on liquor by the Karnataka Government will go a long way in ensuring better tax compliance, thereby generating more revenues for the Government. Needless to say, this will also benefit the industry and finally the consumer." The company officials hoped that the new tax structure would ensure ideal pricing of scotch whiskies, weaning away significant number of consumers who earlier used depend on the grey market which was dominated by the bottled-in-in origin imports.
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Strategic value creation meets starts tomorrow
New Delhi: The Foundation of Indian Industry and Economists (FIIE) and consultancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers are organising a three-day international conference on strategic value creation here from 29 July. The conference aims to deal with the emerging scenario and the impact of new trends in different aspects of doing business. The union ministers for labour and heavy industries, Sahib Singh Verma and Subodh Mohite, will jointly inaugurate the event and hand over corporate excellence awards to Indian Oil Corporation chairman and managing director, M.S. Ramachandran, Oracle India managing director, Shekhar Dasgupta and Oil India Ltd chief, R K Dutta.

Alfa Laval managing director, Satish Tandon and PP Jewellers chairman, Kamal Gupta, would also receive the corporate excellence awards, while Exim Bank managing director, T.C. Venkat Subramaniam, would receive the award on behalf of his organisation for the best development finance institution.
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M&M to roll out upgraded Scorpio variants
Mumbai: Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) has upgraded the variants of its sport-utility vehicle (SUV) Scorpio. The company has made changes in all its three diesel variants, despite at a higher price tag, making the Scorpio dearer by around Rs 11,000. Company officials, however, say there is no correlation between the upgrades and the price hike. M&M has incorporated about seven-eight internal changes in the models. The only change in the exterior is a minor change in the front grill.

M&M offers three diesel variants of the Scorpio — turbo 2.6, 2.6 DX and 2.6 GLX. “We have incorporated these changes based on customer feedback. The Scorpio has completed one year, so we thought it was appropriate to bring in these additions,” said M&M chief operating officer (COO) -automotive division Pavan Goenka. While the new upgrades with the changes are available with the dealers, the company will do a formal launch in August. The Scorpio has sold around 15,000 units since its launch. M&M is selling around 1,400-1,500 units per month.
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Suzuki Motor may enter again with 2-, 3-wheelers
New Delhi: Japanese automaker Suzuki Motor Corp, after exiting from a joint venture with Chennai-based TVS Motor in 2001, is planning for its second innings in the Indian two- and three-wheeler market. The company has obtained government nod to produce, assemble, market and sell two and three-wheelers, including motorcycles, scooters, mopeds and their spare parts for the domestic market by acquiring a majority stake in a local company called Integra Overseas Pvt Ltd. Suzuki would initially acquire 51 per cent stake in the existing firm for implementing the project, sources were quoted as saying. The shareholding will be subsequently increased, depending upon the demand of the products, they said adding that the name of the company is also likely to be subsequently changed to Suzuki Motor India.
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Reliance, ONGC, IOC, Gail eye Karnataka Gas contract
New Delhi: Reliance Industries’ major gas find on the east coast will face a match in October when it will fight along public sector oil and natural gas corp, Indian Oil Corp and Gail for a gas supply tender for 1,400 mw power plant in Karnataka, reports said. RIL has offered to supply seven million standard cubic meters per day (mmscmd) of gas from its Krishna basin deepwater block D6 For Karnataka Power Corp Ltd’S 1400 mw combined cycle power plant at Bidadi, industry sources were quoted as saying. KPCL had last month tendered for sourcing natural gas/regassified LNG (liquefied natural gas) for its 2X700 mw power plant at Bidadi, some 30-km from Bangalore. RIL, whose D6 block holds 14.5 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves capable of producing 60 mmscmd in 3-4 years, has offered to pipe the gas to Bangalore from Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh.

The private firm has competition from the country’s largest gas producer ONGC and gas transmission monopoly Gail. However, the two have offered to supply regassified lng from the upcoming Dahej LNG Import Plant, they said. IOC, along with Britain’s BP, has also offered regassified LNG from its proposed Kakinada LNG Import Terminal while Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) as also offered to sell regassified LNG from Dahej. Interestingly, ONGC, IOC, Gail and BPCL are equal promoters of Petronet LNG Ltd, the firm importing 5 million tonne (17 mmscmd) of LNG from Qatar at Dahej in Gujarat. “It is surprising that the four promoters have bid separately for the same tender,” the sources said.
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