Bt230m boost for Lixil site
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Lixil Corporation, a Japanese manufacturer of a comprehensive line of living and housing-related products and services, will spend at least Bt230 million to expand its "Lixil American Standard" sanitaryware plant and open a showroom next year to strengt
“Thai designers have the creativity and efficiency to design home accessories to serve Asean countries,” Craig McEachern, general manager of Lixil Greater Thailand and the Pacific and managing director of Lixil (Thailand) Plc, said last week.
After Lixil Corp took over American Standard in Asia, it has used Thailand as its product design base in Asean even though it has its production bases for sanitaryware and other home accessories in Vietnam, Indonesia and India.
Of the capital expenditure budget, Bt45 million will be used open a flagship showroom with about 2,000 square metres of space at the Crystal Design Centre in April.
The remaining US$6 million or Bt192 million will be used to increase production capacity for sanitaryware and ceramics under the Lixil American Standard brand.
The company is studying adding a plant for kitchen accessories, doors and other premium housing-related products in Thailand next year.
“We cannot estimate the investment budget because the project is in the budget estimating process. But we will start to expand next year,” he said.
The main customer targets in Thailand are end-users and property firms.
“Although Thailand’s property market has shown signs of slight growth this year and next, it still does not impact our business because most of the residential projects launched in 2011-12 will be completed this year and next year.
“They need more home furnishings and interior decoration before delivering the residences to their customers. This will boost business this year and next year,” he said.
Thailand is Lixil’s production base for windows and ceramic sanitaryware for both the domestic market and Indochinese markets such as Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar.
Lixil Corp recorded revenue of US$14.3 billion in fiscal 2012 ended March, of which $12 billion came from Asia, $1.4 billion from Europe and $900 million from North America.
The group also targets revenue surging to $17.5 billion in 2015 and $30 billion in the future.
