Date:22/12/2004 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2004/12/22/stories/2004122201600200.htm

Back Widex India draws Rs 10-cr investment plan — To increase hearing aid dispensing centres

Sudha Menon

Pune , Dec. 21

WIDEX India, one of the key players in the digital hearing aids business, is gearing up to aggressively grow its operations and is firming up plans to increase its network of dispensing centres across the country in an effort to get closer to the end user.

The company is also firming up plans to set up a manufacturing facility for computer-aided shells for hearing aids, Mr T.S. Anand, Managing Director, Widex India, told Business Line.

"It is an expensive plant to put up but it will give us volumes and we will also use this to export the products to South-East Asia. The company has lined up a Rs 10-crore investment plan in the next 12 months which will steer its plans to get closer to the market, Mr Anand said, adding that it plans to take the number of dispensing centres for digital hearing aids from the current level of seven units to over 15 in the next six months.

"We are setting up two more dispensing centres in Bangalore, three more in Mumbai, one in Baroda, Dehradun, Jalandhar and Delhi currently and plan to have a total of 50 such centres in the next five years," he said.

The company has been in the business of distributing and servicing of digital hearing aids imported from the parent company since 1996 and has invested over Rs 3 crore on growing the business till now. With the small, nascent market now showing signs of growth with customers willing to spend on high-tech hearing aids that deliver better performance, the company is now increasing the number of its offices and servicing centres across the country.

"We plan to grow through the franchisee route and are encouraging audiologists to sign up as their channel partners," Mr Anand said. The company is also simultaneously trying to increase awareness about the problem of hearing disorders and has signed up former Indian wicket keeper Syed Kirmani and veteran actress Zohra Sehgal as its brand ambassadors.

"One out of a thousand newborns have hearing problems and the main challenge is working towards early detection of the problem since 70 per cent of the speech development of the child happens in the first 24 months."

The company, has, in the meantime, signed up with institutions in Thiruvananthapuram, Mysore, Hyderabad and Mumbai for four research programmes, which will conduct controlled trials on those with hearing disabilities.

"We have set aside Rs 35 lakh for the programme and have distributed free hearing aids to children under the project," Mr Anand said.