The new facility will be ready by the end of the year and a team of 30-odd employees is being shifted to Bangalore shortly. The main idea behind the move is to consolidate the group operations in a single location and to avoid heavy expenditure on rentals.

At present, the headquarters of consumer care and lighting group is located at `Nirmal' in Nariman Point, Mumbai. Along with the employees, Wipro Ltd vice-chairman PS Pai will also move to Bangalore. With this, the division is intending to close down the Mumbai facility, top Wipro officials said.

Officials said the proposed shifting of headquarters was not in line with focussing in any markets. The group's marketing strategy will be based on the potential of each market across the country. In fact, Wipro Soaps and Wipro Lighting have a strong market presence in the South.

All major divisionsof Wipro Ltd are located in Bangalore, excluding Wipro Biomed which is currently based in New Delhi. The divisions of the Rs 2,200-crore Wipro Corporation include infotech software and services, infotech systems and services, consumer lighting group and fluid power. In addition, the company's arm Wipro GE Medical Systems Ltd is also in the city, according to officials.

The Azim H Premji-promoted Wipro group has four manufacturing facilities in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. The consumer care and lighting group is also looking at expanding and upgrading its manufacturing capacities. During the fiscal 1998-99, the growth of the division was 16 per cent to report a revenue of Rs 378.8 crore. Wipro Lighting had reported a sales growth of 38 per cent.

The product offering from the Wipro group includes Santoor, Wipro Shikakai, Wipro Baby Soft toiletries, Wipro fluorescent tubes, lighting accessories, end-to-end solutions in commercial and institutional lighting systems and Wipro Sunflower and CookingFat.

The company's commercial and institutional market range consists of incandescent and fluorescent lamps and a full range of industrial and office lighting, street lighting, flood lighting and special lighting systems for varied applications. The division has customised solutions for the infotech industry, which ensures uniform lighting and anti-glare PC monitors.

``Our future growth will be fuelled by products under Wipro brand and Santoor brand extensions, while retaining our cost efficiencies in manufacturing and distribution,'' officials added.