Hyderabad, May 4 (IANS): Steelcase Inc., the global leader in office furniture industry, is setting up a manufacturing facility in Pune as it expands its presence in the Indian market.
The facility, which is slated to become operational in September will initially be an assembly unit as the company will continue to import the raw materials. The 50,000 square feet facility will produce 15 products in the categories of seating and systems, the company officials said here Friday while opening Steelcase Worklife, the first store in Hyderabad and the fourth in India.
Uli Gwinner, president, Steelcase Asia Pacific, told reporters that the Pune plant would be the 26th manufacturing facility in the world and the third in Asia after China and Malaysia.
Steelcase, which has its presence in India for eight years, already has its stores in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore.
"We have a roadmap to increase our footprint in India," he said but declined to give numbers of stores the company plans to open or the investment made in Pune plant.
"It is proud moment for us especially as 2012 marks 100th year of Steelcase," he said. The US-based company is the world's largest office furniture company, offering a comprehensive portfolio of workplace products covering three segments of seating, systems and technology," he said.
As it is a business to business firm, it is targeting the cities which have sizeable population of multi-national companies.
The Indian furniture market is estimated to be $1 billion but we are targeting the high-end market which is $150 million to $200 million, said Praveen Rawal, country manager, Steelcase India.
The Steelcase products in seating segment cost anywhere between Rs.12,000 to Rs.60,000 and in systems and technology between Rs.10 lakh to Rs.40 lakh.
Its products include think and leap task chairs, manifesto workplace system, i2i chair and media: scape which are designed to support collaboration and team work.
Steelcase, which has its headquarters in Grand Rapids, Michigan, US, had global revenues of $2.75 billion during 2011.