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KOLKATA
NOVEMBER 10, 2006
After many local companies of West Bengal trying its hand with PC production,
it is the turn of nationally acclaimed Videocon Group to do the same. Kitchen
Appliances India Ltd (or Kenstar), a Videocon group company is all set to launch
its PCs in the State.
Videocon has selected the forthcoming COMPASS exhibition to announce a
soft-launch of its PC in the Kolkata market. This will be followed by a launch
function in a subsequent event at Siliguri. "We will start selling our PCs in
West Bengal, followed by north-east which is an extremely potential yet highly
neglected market. Then we will spread the business across the eastern region by
the end of this fiscal before we move on to other regions," said Biswajit
Mohinta, Head - IT & Personal Computer Division, Kitchen Appliances India Ltd.
The primary PC production plant of the company has been set up at Siliguri
after it took over the sick food processing plant of Kanchan and is currently
refurbishing the same. The production is due to start by December. "After our PC
production line is set properly we will also consider our foray into the
components as well as networking solutions equipments segment," informed Mohinta.
By February the company plans to start full-fledged marketing activity in the
region.
Justifying the its plans to launch PCs, Mohinta said, “We are one of the
leaders in electronics business which is in synergy with the IT business.
Naturally this diversion is very much justified and we have big plans for our
upcoming IT venture."
According to Mohinta, there has been a growth in the software segment in West
Bengal and adjoining areas. “We feel a proper hardware growth is also essential
to have a proportional development in information technology," said Mohinta.
Videocon is one of the few entities that have been instrumental in
re-structure the corporate culture in the State by scaling up manufacturing.
The company is known for taking over plants that are not doing well and in
the verge of closure and rejuvenated production in its own ways. "Our first such
move started by taking over the dying Philips plant in Sector-V at Salt Lake
during the end of the 1998. Since then the plant has been performing very well
from its first year of operation. It was a great leap for us in West Bengal as
the Philips plant used be one of the best and modern plants in Asia. Since then
we have been manufacturing display devices here," said Mohinta.
In 2005 the company once again took over the second dying unit of Philips'
lamp manufacturing plant in Taratala (Kolkata) and revamped it to start the
production of Videocon appliances. "Convinced by our success in the State
government approached us to do something for the development of the IT industry
in the State," he said.
Now Videocon group is coming up with five Special Economic Zones (SEZs) in
West Bengal - two at Siliguri and three in and around Kolkata. "Our first IT
Park is coming up at Sector-V which will start its construction work in the next
two months," informed Mohinta. Page(s) 1
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