V-Guard ready to invest Rs 200 crore in Kerala, says industries minister Rajeeve

Kerala-based electricals and home appliances manufacturer V-Guard has offered to invest Rs 200 crore in further expansion of its new facility in Kochi, the state's industries minister P Rajeeve told ET.

The minister also announced it after inaugurating V-Guard's innovation campus at the KINFRA-Electronics Manufacturing Cluster (EMC) in Kochi on Wednesday. The campus will create around 400 high-skill jobs for the state's youth, said minister.

The newly built campus houses electronics research and development (R&D) labs, an IoT lab, a reliability lab, a product design studio, a learning center, and consumer insight rooms.


The new Rs 200 crore investment will add to the Rs 120 crore the company has already invested. The second phase of the firm's expansion will come up alongside the newly inaugurated campus, the minister said. The firm has already bought the land for this expansion.

"The innovation campus is a strategic investment in building long-term capabilities for V-Guard," said Mithun K Chittilappilly, managing director of V-Guard.

For Kerala, the campus reinforces the state's emergence as a high-value electronics and advanced manufacturing hub, said minister. The minister further said that the state has the right skills, schemes like Connect to Work scholarships, and strong connectivity. These factors will attract more investments, he said.

The minister further added that the state is in talks with companies it met at Davos, where it received investment commitments worth Rs 1.18 lakh crore.

The new campus spans 3 acres and has a 60 kilowatt-peak (kWp) rooftop solar plant, rainwater harvesting systems, and EV charging points. It also houses R&D and quality testing labs, collaborative workspaces, and a customer experience centre, said the company.