Faber wines will not be produced in India, after all
New Delhi: The producer of the world's largest sparkling wine brand, Faber, has decided not to operate in India after all. The company, Reh Kendermann Weinkellerei of Germany, had planned to set up Asia's largest winery in India, as its twelfth base in the world. The winery, which would have been located at Nashik, Maharashtra, as a 74:26 joint venture with V.K. Gupta. It would have been an integrated agro-based state-of-the-art one and included an R&D centre.

RKW's decision to drop the plan in India comes as a result of an 18-month delay in clearance by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board. The delay has been caused by the government's decision to put all liquor proposals on hold till a policy on potable alcohol is formulated.
Back to News Review index page

Godrej Foods' new edible oil for south
Bangalore: The Rs 460-crore Godrej Foods has decided to decentralise procuring, processing and marketing for its new edible refined sunflower oil brand, Godrej Shakti, so it can better penetrate the lower end of the southern market. With its existing Cooklite and Godrej Refined Sunflower Oil, the company has a 12 per cent share of the edible oils market.

Godrej Shakti will be priced marginally higher than local edible oil brands in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. Godrej Foods has tied up with KTV Oil Mills in Chennai and SNS ArgoTech in Arcot for refining and packaging the brand. The plan is to sell 800 litres of refined oil this year.
Back to News Review index page

Bangalore's multiplex
Bangalore: The Rs 350-crore Kirloskar Business Park, promoted jointly by the Kirloskar group and the Chatterjee group, will add a multiplex to the 38-acre complex containing a hotel, retail arcade, food courts, residential accommodation and club. The complex is coming up on Bellary Road, Bangalore.

The multiplex will be a multi-screen entertainment unit that will feature different films at the same time on different theatres. A complex such as this supports other businesses such as the eateries, retail arcade and other entertainment outlets, among other things.
Back to News Review index page

Nestle's new plans
Delhi: Nestle India is planning to make a foray into mineral water and packaged milk now, though detailed plans have yet to be announced. The company is leader in both segments internationally. It is planning to direct some of its Rs 100-crore working capital savings in India to the two new projects.

In mineral water, it has already launched Evian, but will possibly come up with a product for the mass market now.
Back to News Review index page

L&T to set up clinker unit on JVSL property
Mumbai: Larsen & Toubro Ltd. is investing Rs 120 crore to set up a 2 million tonne clinker unit at Jindal Vijaynagar Steel Ltd's Bellary unit. JVSL will lease its infrastructure facilities to L&T for a fee. L&T plans to source 50 per cent of its slag requirement from the JVSL unit.

The construction of the construction unit is expected to be completed by the end of 2000. This unit will enhance L&T's strength in the southern market, since it has another 2 million tonne clinker unit at Tadpatri, Andhra Pradesh. The JVSL project expects to cater to the Karnataka market.
Back to News Review index page

Usha Communications Technologies ties knot with US company
Calcutta: In a $5-million deal for the supply and implementation of a range of systems in mediation, provisioning, customer care and billing software, Usha Communications Technology has tied up with Amerivision Communications Inc of the US. Amerivision is a telecom multi-service organisation that also resells long distance services, branded Lifeline, through a huge network of affinity partners.

The tie-up will enable Amerivision to register customers, offer marketing plans and manage operations from a single desktop source. UCT has been busy entering alliances in the past six months for launching its billing and mediation (including customer care) products under the brand names Medusa and Unicorn, in the international market. It is currently in talks with Nokia, IBM, Ericsson and Nortel for similar tie-ups.
Back to News Review index page

Voltas offers capacity-sharing for room Acs
Mumbai: Multinational entrants in room air-conditioning are being wooed by Voltas Ltd. for capacity sharing tie-ups for its Dadra plant, where capacity was recently doubled to 1.5 lakh units per annum. The Tata group company is operating at 50 per cent capacity utilisation currently.

The offer could be useful for MNC players who mainly sell imported products right now. Some MNCs have already visited the Voltas unit, and Electrolux and LG appear to have shown interest in the contract manufacturing tie-up possibility.

Voltas was unseated from its leadership position in room air-conditioners a few years ago by Carrier. Voltas is targeting a 40 per cent growth for room air-conditioners and cooling systems this year.
Back to News Review index page

Maruti's new Omnis
New Delhi: Well ahead of the stipulated date of 1 April 2000 for Euro II compliance, Maruti Udyog Ltd. has rolled out two variants of Omni XL -- a five-seater and an eight-seater -- with the option of a multi-point fuel injection system. The new launches make for four variants now in the Omni range. The five-seater version is priced at Rs 2,10,027. Omni XL is a high roof model with a height of 183.5 cm. The flat roof Omni is 19.5 cm shorter on headroom.

The entire Omni range will now be available with the multi-point fuel injection option in Delhi and Calcutta, following Zen VXI that is similarly equipped. Omni sales in October 1999 were 5,069 units, and the company registered a 30 per cent rise in Omni sales in the first seven months of fiscal 1999-2000, compared to the corresponding period last year.
Back to News Review index page