Chennai: ETA General Private Ltd, a joint venture between ETA Ascon group, Dubai and Fujitsu General, Japan, will convert its facility at Pondicherry as the manufacturing hub for its flagship 'General' brand of air conditioners (ACs) for the South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (SAARC) countries.

"The 18-month-old joint venture (JV) had invested about Rs 45 crore in India and another Rs 60 crore would be spent in the next two years, to upgrade and expand the Pondicherry facility with a view to catering to the highly potential SAARC and the whole Asian market," Masayoshi Matsumoto, senior managing director, Fijitusu General Japan told reporters on June 1.

The Pondicherry facility, presently having a capacity to produce 100,000 units a year, was being expanded in a phased manner by adding more processes and capacities to cater mainly to the domestic and emerging SAARC market which, he said, was estimated to be the tune of 100,000 units per annum.

Stating that the SAARC region was a highly promising market, M Ejazuddin, CEO, ETA General said that since General was already a well established brand in these countries, the company's exports to this region was expected to contribute at least 10 per cent of the sales in the coming years.

PTI