Hanacobi plans to set up plant in India

MUMBAI: Kitchenware manufacturing company Hanacobi Co Ltd has said it will set up a production unit and invest about $30 million over the next ten years to strengthen their operations in the country.

"We plan to invest about 30 million dollars over a period of ten years in our Indian operations," Chang Ho Kim, President of the Korean company, said.

Investments may be scaled up depending on sales growth in India, Kim told reporters at the launch of the company's new product range.

The manufacturing plant would be spread across 60,000 square metres and may come up near Mumbai, he said, adding the unit would save the company freight cost.

"Close to 20 to 30 per cent of the import price is being paid by us in the logistics and ocean freight which could be saved once we have our plant here," he said.

Hanacobi is also planning to start export from its Indian facility to other neighbouring countries.

The company plans to launch more products like round containers, water bottles with insulation in future.

It presently sells its products through 900 stores including the likes of Westside, Shoppers' Stop, Trumart as well as local retail stores.

Hancobi plans to scale up its Indian retail business by 40 per cent every year while targeting sales of worth 2.5 million dollars by 2007 and 20 million dollars by 2010.

The company is in talks with Lifestyle, Reliance, Pantaloons, Fab Mall Group and Subhiksha to sell its products through their outlets.