Wal-Mart, the world's No.1 retail chain, is now buying fans from India.
Orient Fans, part of the C K Birla Group on Wednesday announced that it has made an entry into the US market with its first shipment of fans to Wal-Mart.
Orient Fans is India's biggest exporter of fans for many years now, with last year's exports at 600,000 units, said the company.
Orient has been exporting fans to over 20 countries, but the Wal-Mart order is expected to open the gateway for future, high volume exports to the United States, which is world's largest importer of fans and a single-digit share of this market itself is expected to give Orient volumes of over a million fans in three year.
Wal-Mart does global sourcing and so far has been sourcing fans from China. US majors have been looking at India for some time as an additional source due to the gradual increase in costs of Chinese goods. Indian designs were lagging behind and were not able to take advantage and Chinese prices were much lower than those of Indian goods.
Commenting on the development, S B Bhaiya, executive vice president, Orient Fans said, "Orient has a unique position among fan majors in India. It has worked on developing its own range of table, pedestal and wall (TPW) fans. When most manufacturers have shifted to sourcing from China or from local manufacturers in India, Orient's own designs and production facilities have given Orient the competitive edge in quality and the ability to quickly develop fans to meet different market requirements."
TPW fans constitute around 50 per cent of world exports of fans. In India, these constitute only 20 per cent of the market.
Orient bagged the Wal-Mart order by developing fans especially for the US market. The models selected for exports are value-added models at higher price points.
The company produced 2.2 million fans last year and expects to reach its current financial year target of producing 2.5 million fans.
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