NEW DELHI: Pitching for a 20 per cent market share, Tata group company Voltas on Monday announced a multi-pronged strategy envisaging an investment of Rs. 26 crore on promotion and retail expansion of its airconditioners business besides aggressive penetration into rural India which contributed 12 per cent of the revenue last year.

Unfolding the new strategy at a media meet, Senior Vice-President, K. J. Jawa, said the new plant, being set up in Uttaranchal and involving an investment of Rs. 120 crore, would start production by the middle of this year.

"By June this year, the first phase of our new plant at Pantnagar in Uttaranchal will start operations with production of refrigeration units," he said.

The company has shifted its assets for manufacturing refrigerators to Uttaranchal from its Hyderabad unit, which has been shut down. The second phase should start by the end of this year or early next year, he said.

Having set the target of selling three lakh units in 2006 against two lakh units last year, to capture 20 per cent market share, Mr. Jawa said the company had earmarked Rs. 20 crore for ad spend for both outdoors and TV commercials and another Rs. 6 crore for retail expansion.

With a view to pushing for a larger market share, Voltas had introduced a product range for 2006, including split air-conditioners and window ACs with prices starting from Rs. 9,990 at the lower-end and going up to Rs. 46,000 for the high-end. The AC for Rs. 9,990 will target the rural market.

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