Malaysian firm plans manufacturing base in India

Hyderabad: Malaysian home appliances maker Kia Electronics launched a range of products in India and hinted at plans to set up a manufacturing base in the country.

“We are evaluating the possibility of locating a manufacturing hub in the country and a decision on this will be taken by the end of this year and thereafter we will plan the process of setting up the plant,” said Mr Deepak Vaswani, Chairman of Kia Electronics. The quantum of investment and related issues as to the location will be disclosed later, he said.

Earlier, the Malaysian firm, which makes a range of home appliances, including LCD and plasma TVs and home theatre systems, announced its tie-up with Hyderabad-based distribution firm Aveco Electronics.

Kia has manufacturing plants in Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia and China and offers its services as an original equipment manufacturer for different brands in the Asia Pacific region, apart from selling its own products.

The Director of Managing Director of Aveco, Mr Sadeep Jain, said that the alliance will enable them to market Kia products in over 400 outlets across the country. Aveco also distributes products from NEC, Walktalker among others.

Mr Vaswani said that the Indian market offers immense opportunities to expand their business and the roll out of new products covering kitchen and other home appliances will help them penetrate the growing market here.

Kia plans a phased roll out of the products across the country following their entry into South.