Walton set to install electric, electronic home appliance making plant

Walton Hi-Tech Industries Ltd (WHIL), an arm of Walton, is set to set up the country's biggest electric and electronic home appliances manufacturing plant aiming to capture a big share of the domestic and regional market.
The company has bought 200 bighas of land in Chandra area under Kaliakor district to implement the Tk 6.0 billion project, company officials said.
The company, in the mean time, has imported different state-of-art from Germany, Taiwan and Korea and is hopeful to go for production partially at the end of this year (2014).  
According to sources in the company, more than 40 electronic home appliances including LED TV, LED smart TV, CRT TV, Air-cooler, digital weighing machine, pressure cooker, gas stove, rechargeable fan, maintenance- free battery, fry-pan, blender, electric kettly, induction cooker, voltage stabiliser, gas stove, iron and other cooking wares have been planned to be produced in the new plant.
"After years of successful journey in partial production, assembling and marketing of electronic and electric goods both at home and abroad, we have initiated to produce wide range of the said items locally," Md Amdadul Hoque Sarker, executive director (ED) of WHIL, told the FE Monday.
The group presently produces spare parts of a number of such items and also assembles and markets a good number of other home appliances in the country.
According to him, domestic market size of electronic and electric goods is around Tk 50 billion annually, about 40 per cent of which are of electronic home appliances, a large portion of the items the country currently meets through imports.
"It is a lucrative market with an annual growth of around 20 per cent. Besides, Walton products are now also winning heart of some regional and Middle East countries' people," he added.
"The venture would strengthen the company's position in the markets and reduce country's reliance on imported goods mainly those from China and India," Sarker added.
"Local production of the items would also help the country save a significant amount of foreign currency every year and make the company competitive in the regional and other international markets."
Mr Sarker said the company is confident enough of marketing better goods with competitive prices.
However, according to the WHIL ED, some four banks namely AB Bank, Eastern Bank, Prime Bank and National bank have come forward to provide financial support to materialise the project of the company.
Meanwhile, Walton Hi-Tech Industries Ltd is the pioneer in manufacturing of multi-staged refrigerators, freezers, air conditioners, televisions and automobiles, smart phones and home appliances in Bangladesh.
It is a sister concern of R.B. Group, which is one of the topmost conglomerates of Bangladesh. It has been operating its business with great reputation since 1977.
Walton has become a sensation among customers. It has several manufacturing plants in Bangladesh that are among the biggest ones in South Asia.
Walton manufactures a wide- range of products using the state-of-the-art technology, applying innovative designs and maintaining strict quality control system. The major products of  Walton brand are: Refrigerator and Freezer [having three manufacturing plants], Motorcycle, Air Conditioner, Smart Phone , Television [3D LED, Smart TV, LED, LCD, CRT], DVD Player, Microwave Oven and Steam Oven, Washing Machine, Iron, Domestic and Industrial Generators, various kinds of home appliances (Blender, Juicer, Grinder, Rice Cooker and Pressure Cooker, Washing Machine, Electric Kettle, Induction Cooker, Sewing Machine, Hair Dryer etc).
Walton Hi-Tech Industries Ltd as well as other sister concerns of R.B. Group is well-furnished with a strong Research and Development (R&D) Division, comprising a large team of 12,000 accomplished employees and 600 plus highly skilled engineers and technical personnel.
"The Walton's management is very strict regarding the quality of the products. It gives highest priority to quality assurance system to ensure customers' satisfaction maintaining their database," Sarker informed.
He said since its first priority is customer's satisfaction, it follows a very strong and strict quality control policy to maintain international standards of its products.