Panaji, May 24: Global water treatment technology company Pentair is set to enter Indian homes.
Pentair, which has so far utilised its state-of-the-art plant in Goa to make water treatment product for industrial use, is coming out with a domestic product range which won’t be made here but assembled as kits from components made by its sister concerns all over the world.
The home segment of water treatment in India is dominated mostly by Eureka Forbes’ Aquaguard water purifier. Then, there are local purifiers and the middle class relies heavily on filters and boiled waters.
However, Pentair maintains that its domestic product range goes beyond purifiers and filters. “Pentair wants to lead the water treatment solutions to residential markets by 2005. We have a sales target of Rs 250 crore by that time” said Gautam Khanna, CEO of Pentair Water India (PWI). PWI is a 100 per cent subsidiary of the $ 3 billion Pentair Inc.
“The residential water treatment solution market is $ 50 million and growing at 20 per cent,” said Khanna. In the industrial segment, Pentair India has a 26 per cent market share of the more than $ 10 million market.
The domestic segment product range includes Pentair Home RO (reverse osmosis), Pentair Home UF (ultra filtration), Pentair Home UV, Pentair Home Filter, Washing machine filter, cartridge filters, home water softener, pressure booster systems and Pentair pool products. It is rather ambitiously priced for the Indian market ranging between Rs 4000 to Rs 45000.
Pentair, which came to India five years back, has so far invested Rs 100 crore in India. “Pentair will invest about $ 1.75 million in the Goa plant this year to expand the production of its industrial usage flagship product Codeline,” said Khanna.
“The US facilities will shut down Codeline manufacturing, which will be totally shifted to Goa. This is being done as cost of production is substantially lower in India,” said Khanna.
Khanna also said that by the third quarter of this year, the Goa facility will become the world’s largest manufacturer of reverse osmosis pressure vessels”. The turnover of PWI was $ 10 million last year — a figure that the company hopes to double this year, Khanna said.
