The Hindu Business Line : Saint Gobain to set up new production line

Saint Gobain Glass India, the Indian subsidiary of the French multinational, is investing another Rs 100 crore for setting up a new production line to manufacture a high-end heat reflective glass.

Addressing a press conference, Mr R Subramanium, National Manager - Sales & Marketing, said that this new production line would be ready by October, this year.

He was in the city to launch a range of Sun Ban Reflective Glasses.

Saint Gobain is currently marketing three ranges of Sun Ban Reflective Glasses.

These are Reflectasol, Cool-Lite and Antelio. While the first one is produced in India, the rest are imported from the company's manufacturing units in Europe.

"The new line that we are investing would be producing Cool-Lite. The capacity of the new production would be three million square metre per annum," he said.

According to him, the overall glass market in India is growing at a pace of 10-20 per cent per annum but the high-end heat reflective glasses have registered a 50 per cent growth each year.

"Earlier, these reflective glasses were used in huge shopping malls or commercial centres. However, there is a change and we are noticing that even small families buying two-room flats want to use these glasses. We would now like to sell this item as a mass product," he added.

At present, in India, Saint Gobain has nine companies and for the year ended December 31, 2005, the group's total turnover was Rs 1,200 crore. Hementioned that the total Indian glass market is worth Rs 1,700 crore, of which Saint Gobain is the market leader with a 26 per cent market share.