Shweta to be the face of GEM in India
EMPIRE Home Appliances, a group company of Maharaja Appliances that owns the brand GEM, is looking for a strategic partner. According to company sources, promoter Harish Kumar is likely to dilute around 25% in favour of the new partner. The Maharaja Appliances group, one of the largest kitchen appliances manufacturers in the country that owns the brand Maharaja Whiteline, is also planning to spend Rs 100 crore on GEM.
“We are looking for a strategic joint venture partner. We are in talks with a few industry players and if all goes well, we expect the partnership to formalise before the end of this calendar year,†a company official told SundayET.
Maharaja Appliances acquired Kelvinator’s GEM brand last year as part of its strategy to foray into the white goods segment. It also bought 50% stake in consumer electronics company Beltek last year. In fact, Mr Kumar is an erstwhile promoter of Electrolux Kelvinator.
The group, which has major plans up its sleeves, is targeting a turnover of Rs 2,000 crore in the next five years. During 2005-06, the company achieved a turnover of Rs 300 crore.
Empire Home Appliances has aggressive plans to market products, including refrigerators, washing machine, microwave oven, colour TV, DVD player and home theatre system. “In all probability, we’ll add air conditioner to our present product portfolio in the next season. Apart from that, we are soon launching a 50 litres sideby-side refrigerator, which will be the first of its kind in the market,†the official said.
The company is also re-positioning the brand GEM in the market for which ad-spends would be considerably increased in the next financial year. “Recently, we launched a Rs 25-crore media campaign to promote the GEM brand. As part of that campaign, a new commercial featuring TV actor Shweta Tiwari will be launched by the month-end. We are targeting high-end middle class customers for our products,†he said.
