Hyderabad: Consumer electronics company Havells India is planning to expand its research and development team in Bengaluru for designing technologically better products, especially in the domain of Internet of Things.
“We have an R&D team of 250 engineers in Bengaluru focused on Internet of Things (IoT) applications. We will be adding at least 100 more engineers,” Havell’s India chairman Anil Rai told reporters here.
Mr Rai was in the city to launch Lloyds’ new airconditioners — Grande series — in three models and two variants for Telangana State and Andhra Pradesh. Lloyds, which was acquired by Havell’s in 2017, is one of the large AC sellers in the Telugu states.
Even after the acquisition of Lloyds, Havells had decided to continue selling airconditioners under the former’s brand. The company is also planning to invest Rs 360 crore for setting am AC manufacturing unit at Ghilot in Rajasthan.
The plant, which would be operational by March 2019, would produce six lakh units per year. Mr Rai said the company is bullish about the opportunities in smaller cities for their premium mass market products and expects to post decent double-digit growth in all its verticals.
According to a report of Edelweiss Financial Services, Havells is focus on smallers cities “is aiding growth, amply reflected in the company’s numbers over the past few quarters — 23 per cent growth in H1FY19.”
