Chinese home appliances company Haier India, which recently forayed into the Indian market, plans to set up a research and development centre near New Delhi with Rs 30-50 lakh (Rs 3-5 million) investment and focus on erasing the concept of 'cheapness' associated with Chinese products.
"To start with, we will be investing about Rs 3-5 million in this R&D unit of the company which will come up near New Delhi where we will concentrate on Indianising the products and make it in accordance with the needs of the Indians," Haier India president and CEO T K Banerjee told mediapersons in Ahmedabad on Wednesday.
This is the 12th showroom across the country and will showcase about 70 of its products like television, refrigerators, air-conditioners, washing machines, micro-wave ovens and other home appliances, Banerjee, who was in Ahmedabad to inaugurate a showroom, said.
"The company has plans to set up 20 more showrooms by the end of the year," the CEO of Haier India, a 100 per cent subsidiary of Haier Group said.
The company started operations in India last September and has mopped up a sales turn over of about Rs 300 crore (Rs 3 billion) within a short period, he said.
"About 60 per cent of the company's turnover comes from televisions and another 35 per cent comes from the sale of refrigerators," Banerjee added.
