Luminous Electronics, the UPS and inverter manufacturer, is planning to differentiate the planks for its IT and non-IT business segments. This will mean creating an identity for the UPS business separate from its other business areas. Gearing up for the summer heat in advance, the UPS and inverter manufacturer has outlined expansion plans. The company, which presently has one manufacturing unit, will be adding another unit to enhance its production capacities in the next few months. In addition, it also plans to add another dimension to its business by foraying into technology selling.

According to Navneet Kapoor, managing director, Luminous Electronics, the company has already initiated segregation of the Luminous power brand of products (UPS) and the home appliances products by taking them to a higher awareness level as far as brands are concerned. This will culminate into sub-branding for the two distinct product categories by the year-end.

This is in line with the growth in its UPS business, which comprises almost 40 percent of its total business. The company is estimating a 100 percent growth in terms of its UPS business over the next one year. Keeping this in mind Luminous will be increasing its production by setting up a second unit catering to both the UPS and the inverter business. The existing factory, which has the production capacity of 20,000 UPS units per month, is expected to reach full utilisation in the next 4-5 months.

The second factory is being set up to cater to the additional demand. In order to broaden its business offerings the company is also planning to sell its technology in the overseas market. This will provide an impetus to the company’s operations in the international market, said Rakesh Malhotra, managing director of SAR Silicon Systems, the company handling the marketing for Luminous. Luminous is already in talks with three companies for this. The target customers include small to mid-sized players into UPS manufacturing and assembling and having good networks in their own country but lacking indigenous technology expertise. The company rejected any fear of this new business line conflicting with Luminous’ own export business. “There are different gradations in technology transfer and technologies are also evolving very fast. This apart, the market itself is so big as that this initiative will not eat into our export business,” added Malhotra. The company did not rule out the possibility of taking forward the initiative from mere technology selling to JV partnerships in the future.

The company will be further upping the ante on the export business front with plans to launch its online UPS range into the overseas market. This will help the company find a foothold in the high-end market overseas, which is largely dominated by Chinese and Taiwanese products and get an opportunity to move up the value chain. Luminous is also trying to expand its operations geographically into the Latin American market. The company is presently exporting to 22 countries including countries in West Asia and SAARC region. With its outlined plans the company is targeting to improve its UPS export revenues to 30 percent of its total UPS revenues in the next two years from the present 15-20 percent.

On the domestic market front the company’s initiatives will be targeted towards strengthening the channel network and pushing the products into the government segment. The company will be focusing on Tier-2 distribution partners with bigger reach, in order to build strength in the level two markets where its position is not very strong. Luminous has started targeting the government market and will be creating a specialised channel for it.