Jaipur, September 14, 2005: Liberty, the fifth largest footwear manufacturer in the world, has set up a Rs 50 crore state-of-the-art project at Neemrana (Rajasthan) to produce international quality ceramic sanitary wares in technical collaboration with SACMI Imola of Italy. Trial production from the project is scheduled to begin from Wednesday, September 14, 2005 and the final products will reach the market during coming festival season.
The project, which is expandable to more than Rs.100 crore in three years, will manufacture Wash Basins, WC Bowls, Bidets, Shower Trays and Ceramic Accessories under Liberty Whiteware brand with all quality certifications in place. These products will also conform to high quality European standards, Mr. Adarsh Gupta, CEO Liberty Whiteware said.
“The diversification comes in the wake of a rising demand-supply gap in the sanitary ware products industry, which is expected to increase to 98000 MT by 2007. The move is also an attempt to leverage the number one domestic footwear brand from a single product segment to multiple value added segments like ceramic sanitary ware etc,” Mr.Gupta added.
Liberty Whiteware project is implemented in a record time of 10 months and is expected to achieve its break even point (BEP) in the first year of commercial operations itself with an expected turnover of Rs. 50 crore. The targeted turnover from the project is Rs. 200 crore in the fifth year of commercial operations.
In India, the annual domestic market for ceramic sanitary ware products is at around Rs 700 crore, growing at an annual growth rate of 10-12 per cent. Out of this, the organized market is valued at Rs 300 crore, growing at 16% p.a., which is more than the growth in the unorganized sector.
On the scope of expansion, Mr. Gupta said, “The latest estimate drawn up by Development Panel of Ceramics, the demand of ceramic sanitary ware has reached approx 1,60,000 tons per annum and is expected to rise to approx 2,58,000 tons by 2007 leaving a good scope for Liberty Whiteware to create additional capacity. This apart, there will be huge investments to be made in Infrastructure sector as well as renovation of old buildings into multi- storeyed apartments, the exports of sanitary ware have shown a consistent upward trend in recent years which also gives us a great opportunity to leverage in the years ahead.”
“Neemrana is the ideal place for producing sanitary ware due to several factors like availability of land, raw materials, power, gas, construction materials at reasonable price, well developed infrastructure facilities, manpower and connectivity with rail, road and air transport. Encouraged by the support extended by the Bureau of Investment Promotion, Government of Rajasthan, Liberty Group chose Rajasthan to set up this plant at Neemrana. Besides, the project site also offers satisfactory weather conditions for producing high quality sanitary ware products,” he added.
