Spartek, a household brand in ceramic tile, is embarking on a capacity expansion plan by getting into a series of joint ventures to set up contract manufacturing facilities.
The plan envisages capacity expansion across a range of products such as floor, wall and vitrified tiles. A part of the additional capacity will be put by Spartek itself. The remaining will come through floatation of joint ventures with local entrepreneurs in different locations.
Significantly enough, the capacity expansion move comes in the wake of Spartek signing up a technical agreement with an Italian firm.
Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, Krishnaprasad Tripuraneni, Chairman of the group, said the capacity expansion would involve a total investment of around Rs. 100 crore. Each individual project would involve an investment of Rs. 25-50 crore.
He said the group would be looking at entrepreneurs who could bring in Rs. 5-15-crore equity. Spartek would be a minority partner in these joint ventures.The products produced by these joint ventures would be sold under the brand name of Spartek, he said.
In all, Spartek was looking at beefing up the production capacity by about 7.2 million sq. ft.
Mr. Tripuraneni said the South had only three to five vitrified tile plants. And, majority of the demand was met through supplies from Gujarat. Given the high transportation cost, it made sense for Spartek to make tiles in the South, he said. He was confident that the new facilities would go operational inside 12 months of the finalisation of the joint ventures.
