RBS Home Appliances Ltd — the sole distributor for ‘Siemens’ home appliances —has recently signed an agreement and entered into a long-term strategic tie-up with Voltas Ltd to use Voltas’ 640 after-sales service network across the country for servicing Siemens products. 

Says RBS Home Appliances Ltd managing director Vipul Rawal: “The core strength of Voltas Ltd lies in its after-sales service network. It is already providing after-sales service to Pepsi’s visi-coolers and Cadbury’s. Now even we have entered into an agreement with Voltas Ltd for after-sales service for Siemens appliances.” 

RBS Home Appliances is also planning to beef up its distribution network for Siemens products from 400 to 1,000 retail outlets across the country by 2005-end. With the move, RBS Home Appliances hopes to spur volume growth for Siemens appliances by an additional 50 per cent by the 2005-end, he added. 

According to Mr Rawal: “We have recently nationally relaunched Siemens washer dryer with 100 per cent drying capability for clothes in India, unlike other fully-automatic washing machine brands that give only 90 per cent drying capability. The reason why we opted for the relaunch is because space is a constraint in Mumbai and buying a washing machine and a dryer separately becomes expensive for common people.” 

As part of the strategy, RBS Home Appliances has started sourcing Siemens washer dryers from China which is a worldwide requirement factory for Siemens products. At present, Siemens washer dryers are being exported to the Gulf countries, Africa, Germany, the UK, Spain, Europe, Singapore and Australia. 

At present, there are four models of Siemens fully-automatic washing machines available in India. 

To create awareness about the new Siemens washer dryer, RBS Home Appliances is planning to set up hoardings in the next two weeks across the country at an investment of Rs 25 lakh. “With the move, we hope to sell 300 units of Siemens washer dryers in Phase I and double the quantity in Phase II,” he added. 

According to Mr Rawal, with the new initiatives, Siemens hopes to achieve a sales turnover of Rs 60 crore within a year.