The new company--Moulinex Home Appliances--in which the foreign company will be the dominant partner, is set to be operationalised in a few months. Gravs Appliances chairman Girish M Gupta will be a member on the board of the company.

The two partners are, however, unwilling to divulge further details of the joint venture such as on exact shareholding of the two partners in the proposed joint venture, constitution of the board and proposed investments at this stage.

At a press conference addressed jointly by Gravs chairman and Groupe Moulinex vice president sales Gilles Sfez, the French company announced its products would be available in markets across northern and western region from May 15. The rollout of the products across the country is expected to be completed by Septemberthis year.

Initially, the company proposes to introduce food processors, mixer grinders and microwave ovens. This would be followed up with a range of 20 products such as toasters, hand blenders and coffee grinders in July, three jar mixers and juicer mixers grinders in August and radiant heaters and irons in September.

Sfez said the company has already tied up with 27 distributors covering 40 per cent of the Indian market. The company proposes to increase the coverage by increasing the number of distributors to 100 by the year end.

Certain products such as food processors, mixer grinders and microwave ovens would be imported from Moulinex facilities overseas, while other products would be manufactured by Gravs Appliances at its facility at Noida.Gravs Gupta said his company was upgrading and expanding the facility to be able to manufacture the entire range of Moulinex products. Gravs will also help the French company to source some products from other small scale units, if the need arises.

Regardingthe positioning of the Moulinex products, Sfez said the brand would seek to penetrate the middle class homes across the country. He added that the prices of the product would be competitive vis-a-vis other brands in the same product segments. "We do not want to be niche market player."Sfez added that Moulinex Home Appliances was aiming a turnover of Rs 70 crore in three years from its operations here.

The company plans to spend Rs 2 crore in advertising in the first year of operation. "To enhance the already well established brand awareness in India, a strong advertising campaign has been planned in support of the launch," Sfez said.

Groupe Moulinex is the world's fourth largest domestic appliances manufacturer selling its products under four brands--Moulinex, Krups, Mallory and Swan. The company manufacturers over 200 products ranging from home equipments such as irons and vacuum cleaners to food processors, microwave ovens, kettles and hair driers. Its main competitors worldwide include French companySEB which sell brands such as Tefal, Philips, Matsushita and Braun. The company earn's nearly 33 per cent of its turnover from operations outside the home country.