This is Duravit AG’s first factory in India and 10th globally. It spreads across 170,000 square metres of land. The factory,has been set up at an estimated investment of Rs 120 crore. It will initially produce 500,000 pieces of ceramic bathroom fittings.The company has set first-year revenue target at around €30 million (Rs 179 crore).
The German firm had signed a MoU during the Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors’ Summit (VGGIS) in 2007 to set up the plant with an investment of Rs.70 crore, but defied the global recessionary trend to set up the modern plant.
According to Ashutosh Shah, managing director, Duravit India Pvt Ltd, the company intends to double the capacity in the next 2 years with estimated investment of Rs 15 crore. Though the factory is set up primarily for Indian market, the company also plans to export surplus goods to Africa through Gujarat plant.
“India is an important future market.It has a growing lifestyle consumer base due to its healthy economic development,” Chairman Board of Management Duravit Group Franz Kook said.
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who inaugurated the facility said that he would like Duravit AG set up a hockey institute in Gujarat as Kook is a former hockey player.
Kook had first visited Gujarat in 1962 to participate in the International Hockey Tournament as a German team player.
Shri Modi hoped that the state’s ceramic industry will reinvent itself to provide strong competition to China in the global market.
Shri Modi said the Gujarat’s ceramic industry is traditionally located near the Morbi industrial belt in the Saurashtra region, but it was laudable that the German sanitaryware major set up this plant in Anand district in central Gujarat.
