Amara Raja chalks out plan for expansion

Bhubaneswar: As part of its national expansion plan, Amara Raja Batteries (ARBL), one of the leading manufacturers of industrial and automotive batteries, has chalked out plans to expand its Pitstop ( the state of art retail centre) network in the state.

It will open 6 more Pitstops in next couple of days to take the total to 7. The locations are Bhubaneswar, Keonjhar, Sambalpur, Angul, Berhampur and Rourkela.

It also plans to open 2 more Pitstops later at Baripada and Jeypore to take the total to 9 in the state by the end of the financial year. “At present we have 130 Pitstops in the country and we plan to increase this to 175 by March 2009. In Orissa, we will add 8 more Pitstops during the current fiscal”, Rajiv A Mehta, head of sales- South Asia said.

Addressing the media on the eve of the inauguration of the new Pitstop located in Cuttack Road here, he said, Pitstops are being opened at Bhubaneswar and Berhampur today. While Pitstop stores will be opened at Angul and Sambalpur on 26 November, the Pitstop stores will be opened at Rourkela and Keonjhar on the next day.

The company attained a net turnover of Rs 1104 crore in 2007-08 with the net profit at Rs 94.3 crore. It hopes to achieve a turnover of Rs 2000 crore during the current fiscal. Similarly, the company is targeting a sales turnover of Rs 20 crore in Orissa during 2008-09 which will be about 35 to 40 percent more than the previous fiscal.

Asked about the impact of the global slowdown on the forecasts of the company, Mehta said, the company recently added two wheeler batteries to its product portfolio. Since it will more than compensate the marginal loss in non-two wheeler automotive and industrial battery segments, the company’s turnover projections will not be impacted much.