A ₹1,150 crore manufacturing facility of Welspun Flooring, coming up near here, is expected to get into production mode, starting with the easy-to-instal, light-weight stone polymer composite (SPC) tiles, by August.
“It is under construction,” Mukesh Savlani, president and CEO, said about the facility that eventually would be spread over 600 acres on the outskirts of the city.
“Full commissioning will happen somewhere between September and December and at its full glory, the facility would employ 1,500 people. We will start production [on SPC] between July and August,” he said in an interaction here on Tuesday.
A part of the $2.3 billion Welspun Group, the company is making a foray into flooring with a focus on convenient flooring solutions, especially through the click-n-lock technology that comes with the stone polymer composite tiles.
Locking mechanism
The click-n-lock technology, which does not require water, cement or sand to install the tiles, is essentially a locking mechanism that binds two SPC tiles together. Highlighting the advantages, he said the installation is easier, less time consuming and avoids the hassles associated with conventional tile-laying process.
“It is seamless and no grouting is required,” he said, the product has applications in both commercial and residential buildings and the tenants can even remove them while shifting to another location.
Besides SPC, the product portfolio of Welspun Flooring’s will include carpet tiles that now are being imported and artificial grass. “It was an opportunity for us to get this going in India as one of the first investments in non-traditional flooring segments,” Mr.Savlani said, adding the manufacturing facility would initially have a capacity of 10 million square metres. Over time, this is to be scaled up to 30 million square metres.
The firm is setting up a distribution network, growing sales through e-commerce, too, and setting up experiential stores — with the first set of stores in Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru and Hyderabad likely to be in place by Diwali. It has also set the ball rolling on training about 1,500 installers by this year.
“We are [also] working with builders, hotel group, distributors, co-working spaces and educational institutions,” he said. The Hyderabad facility was also expected to get into exports soon, with the U.S., Europe, Australia, West Asia, south east Asia being the target markets.
