City-based appliance and kitchen solution company Kutchina is all set to step out of the eastern region and establish itself as a pan-India player with notable presence in Mumbai, Delhi and the cities of southern India.

The company is approaching this audacious goal with a two-pronged strategy: setting up its own manufacturing base to cut dependence on the erratic and ever challenging imports from China and bulking up on presence in these new markets with exclusive showrooms and deeper retail outreach.

The plant, which aims to more than double Kutchina’s capacity to manufacture modular kitchen capacity and make kitchen chimneys in-house, is coming up on Kalyani Expressway near Calcutta, the headquarters of the company.

Namit Bajoria, managing director of Kutchina, said the plant, to be ready by December, would be able to take the load of the increase in volume coming from the new territories.

“No matter how much business we do in the east, there will be a limitation on volume. We have to go to markets such as Mumbai or Delhi which are very big,” Bajoria said over the phone.

The company plans to establish its presence in Mumbai and Delhi this year and target the southern states next. Bajoria said Kutchina can only become widely known if it can establish itself in these markets.

Bajoria said each market would require customisation, which could now be more easily possible with the company’s own manufacturing plant. Mumbai, for instance, is all for compact designs as apartments there are smaller than rest of the metropolises.

The company plans to set up a few showrooms to display its entire suite of products in these markets.

Even though chimney continues to be the mainstay of the business, Kutchina is ambitious to present itself as a complete kitchen solution company.

Apart from the chimney and modular kitchen, it has ventured into hobs, dishwashers, water purifiers, oven, mixer grinder, juicer, toaster, non-stick pans among others. The size of the market where Kutchina operates is estimated to be Rs 5,700 crore, with the unorganised sector having a larger chunk.

The company outsources majority of the items from China while some were jobworked at India. The plan will skew it in favour of inhouse products in 23 years and cut dependency on import. It is investing around Rs 45 crore for the unit, which will be vertical in design, in order to save on the land cost.

Despite the pandemic led disruptions, Bajoria said the target is to end the year with at least Rs 300 crore revenue, up by 15 per cent from the last fiscal, powered by expanded presence.

Kutchina will be facing stiff competition from established players such as Italian company Elica and Faber, another Italian giant which popularised kitchen chimneys in India. The success of Kutchina will depend on how effectively it can take on the might of these giants.