Aequs Chairman and CEO Aravind Melligeri expects Hubballi to emerge as a non-stick cookware manufacturing hub.
He signed an MoU with KLE Technological University (KLETU) to set up ‘Aequs Innovation Cetnre (AIC)’ at the institution’s campus in Hubballi. It is said to be first of its kind in Karnataka.
He briefed mediapersons in Hubballi, along with KLETU) Vice Chancellor Prof. Ashok Shettar, about the project
Aequs, a diversified contract manufacturing company, has already started operating in Belagavi and Hubballi-Dharwad, and is involved in the setting up of toy cluster at Koppal. Mr. Melligeri said that its Hubballi-Dharwad plant had produced 3 million cookware, and the plan is to manufacture 6 million units by March 2023. Later, production would be ramped up to 5 million units every year with exports starting from December.
The company has employed 5,000 persons in Hubballi and Belagavi.
With the establishment of toy cluster in Koppal, nearly 25,000 persons would get employment. Steps had been taken to train and help ‘Kinnal Toy’ artistes to scale up their production.
At AIC, students of KLETU would get a free hand to work on their innovative designs and development
Mr. Melligeri said that the Aequs Innovation Centre (AIC) would function as an innovation eco system and incubation platform for accelerated product development. At the AIC, students of KLETU would get a free hand to work on their innovative designs and development.
Aequs is ready for more industry-academic initiatives to help young minds play an active role in design and manufacture of new products. The plan is to provide direct employment to 100-plus engineers in the first five years.
Prof. Ashok Shettar said that the AIC would be housed at the Industry 4.0 Lab being built by KLETU, and would help train engineers in cutting edge technologies, product design and development. Along with students, KLETU expects the faculty too to benefit from the MOU,
