Kerala being eyed by major global players

Two industry majors have concretised their expansion plans for operations in Kerala. Zuri Group Global, the multinational major, revealed in its press communiqué released at Kochi that the company is looking at an investment of US$ 257 million in the hospitality sector to set up its own brands and also take up management contracts as part of its strategy to increase the number of wholly-owned properties.

The company also intends to establish at least 10-15 projects under the management contract models in cities, such as Hyderabad, Chennai, Mysore, Kochi, while projects owned by it will be coming up at Bengaluru, Nairobi and in West Asia in the next two years. According to the communiqué, six acres of land adjoining the new International Airport at Bangalore in Devanahalli has already been procured at an investment of US$ 42.82 million. The 150-room 5-star luxury hotel is expected to be commissioned in mid-2012.

Olive Telecom, the other industry player and a convergence solutions device developer, has launched its range of innovative devices for the Kerala region. Its product range includes 14 mobile handsets along with other 3G-enabled devices.

The Kerala market has immense potential and the company is firming up its presence with aggressive plans to reach out to customers across the state, according to Arun Khanna, the chairman of Olive Telecom. He also added that 17 distributors have been lined up in the state and another 30 would be added in the next few months.

Olive has invested huge sums in R&D and is planning to invest over US$ 21.41 million in brandbuilding over the next 18 months. It also plans to sell 10 million devices globally by 2011.