Blue Star Climatech, air conditioning and commercial refrigeration major Blue Star’s newly formed wholly-owned subsidiary, on Wednesday laid the foundation for the construction of a world-class manufacturing facility at Sri City in Andhra Pradesh. The company plans to invest Rs 550 crore over the next few years on the plant, which will be built on an area of 20 acres, in a phased manner.
The manufacturing facility will be highly automated and will ensure that the products manufactured are globally competitive. It is also planning to acquire IGBC Gold Rated Green Building certification for the plant. The construction of the first phase of 30,000 sq metre will be completed by July 2022 and the facility will be operational by Q2FY23. It will primarily manufacture room ACs with a maximum capacity of 12 lakh units per annum.
B Thiagarajan, MD, Blue Star, said: “Setting up this plant is a part of our strategic initiative to significantly scale up our manufacturing operations by investing in world-class, Industry 4.0 manufacturing facilities. Aligning ourselves with the ‘Make in India’ initiative and by leveraging on the PLI scheme by the Indian government, we intend to manufacture certain components in-house at this facility.”
Thiagarajan had told FE last year that it would set up separate company to run its upcoming manufacturing plant at Sri City in a bid to avail the tax rate benefits applicable to the manufacturing investments. He had said the Sri City project was meant for catering to the Southern markets and it would help the company in reducing its inventory holding period, logistics and transportation expenses which are substantial.