NE BUSINESS BUREAU
GANDHINAGAR, OCT 27
Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani on Tuesday took part in a virtual stone-laying ceremony of ceramic firm Varmora Granito’s two upcoming tile manufacturing plants in the state.
The two manufacturing units are coming up near Morbi town of the Saurashtra region where the company already operates 11 plants, Varmora Group Chairman Bhavesh Varmora said after the virtual stone-laying ceremony.
In his address, Rupani congratulated the ceramic industry of Morbi for “going ahead of China and capturing the ceramic market of the world”, according to a state government release.
“I congratulate Varmora Group for these two new plants,” he added.
Ceramic products worth Rs 14,000 crore are exported to various countries every year from Morbi.
“We are now focussing on strengthening the infrastructure so that people come to Morbi instead of China to buy ceramic products,” said Rupani.
Morbi is the hub of the ceramic industry in India with over 900 units contributing nearly 92 percent of the entire country’s tile production, which comes to around 6.5 percent of the entire world’s production, Varmora told reporters after the ceremony.
The group would invest Rs 300 crore in both the plants having the capacity to produce 35,000 square metres of tiles per day.
This will add to the current capacity of 1.10 lakh square metres tiles produced in the 11 existing units every day, said Varmora.
He added that both the plants will become operational by April next year and will generate 1,200 direct and indirect employment opportunities.
The company exports its tile and bathware products to over 70 countries and aims to achieve a turnover of Rs 1,600 crore in the next 2-3 years, a jump of Rs 500 crore.
Varmora said “Anti-China” sentiment is catching up across the world and it would help Indian ceramic industry to a great extent.
“Since people are moving away from Chinese products world over, demand for Morb’s tiles is increasing. Currently, Morbi manufactures 6.5 percent of all the tiles made across the world.
“Due to this anti-China sentiment, we predict that Morbi’s share from present 6.5 per cent to 10 per cent by 2025,” said Varmora.
He also said the company, having its office in China also, is planning to start its manufacturing plant in Kenya by July next year.
