AGI Glasspac plans to start operations in new plant by Feb

Hyderabad: AGI Glasspac, the glass division of Hindustan Sanitaryware and Industries Ltd (HSIL), plans to commission the first furnace in its new plant located at Bhongir, in Nalgonda District, by February 2009.

“Once commissioned, it would be the second glass manufacturing plant of the company and we are looking at putting up three furnaces in the unit there. The first of which will be operational by January-February 2009,” Mr R.K. Somany, Chairman and Managing Director of Hindustan Sanitaryware and Industries Ltd, said.

The company has one glass unit located in Hyderabad with an installed capacity of 525 tonnes of container glass a day and has bought around 75 acres of land in Bhongir for the second unit.

Mr Somany said that the company in the next couple of years would be investing Rs 1,000 crore there and in the first phase is investing Rs 230 crore.

“The new furnace would have a capacity of 425 tonnes per day and as per the long-term plan of the company we intend to reach a capacity of 1,500 tonnes per day in the next five years,” he added.

When asked if they had plans of increasing the production capacity in the sanitary division, Mr Somany said that though they intended to increase the production capacity, it had been put on hold because of the slowdown in the real estate sector.

The company in its two plants — Bahadurgarh in Haryana and Bibinagar in Andhra Pradesh — has an installed capacity of 3.2 million pieces a year.

He also said that the company is looking at some foreign acquisitions, but did not want to give details at the moment. HSIL, which has also ventured into the home interior specialty retail and projects sector by creating a 100 per cent subsidiary Hindware Home Retail Private Ltd, is looking at opening three more stores soon.

“The chain of specialty stores, with three different formats covering living, kitchen and bath domains, will range from 8000 sq ft to 30,000 sq ft size. (It) has been launched under the new retail brand EVOK. We have opened one store in the Northern Capital Region at Faridabad,” he said.

He added that the company first wants to enter the northern and western markets in the first year and is currently scouting for locations in Jaipur, Pune and Mumbai.