Established in the 19th century by The Singer Company, US, at Bombay as Indian Sewing Machines, Singer India Limited was initially marketing the indigenously produced sewing machines under the trade mark Merritt - owned and locally registered by The Singer Company, US. In 1977, it started carrying on its business in India as a separate entity. The company has a collaboration with Singer, the Netherlands, which also holds 51% stake in the company and is engaged in the business of trading / manufacturing of sewing machines, related accessories and in trading of domestic appliances.
In 1984, the company diversified into a varied range of household appliances -- TVs, washing machines, cooking ranges, food processors and vacuum cleaners. In 1986, it came out with an indigenous model of an automatic sewing machine for fashion designing, which was launched in Mumbai. In 1989, Himec India became a wholly-owned subsidiary chiefly to export the company's product - mainly the Zig Zag machine. Its other subsidiaries are Mahavir Founders & Engineers and Singer India Trading. At present, the company has diversified into the totally unrelated business of household furniture.It had entered into the refrigeration industry by setting up refrigerator manufacturing units in different states. It has started manufacturing Ironing Presses. The company has added one more model of Washing Machines in 2001-02.
The company set up a new factory to manufacture audios and black & white TV sets, production of which commenced. Its Jammu factory was awarded the ISO 9002 certification. During 1999-2000, the company introduced professional XL-1000 and XL-100 fully computerized sewing machines imported from Singer. Microwave ovens and steamlite irons, both imported, has also been introduced to its existing range.
In 2000-01, the company expanded/upgraded the range of products offered in refrigerators, colour televisions and food processors. During February,2001 the Board has approved the Rights Issue of equity shares in the ratio of 1:1 at par of Rs. 10/-each. The issue opened on July 16,2002 and closed on September,2002. Subsequent to the rights issue the Share Capital increased to Rs.15.65 crores.
The Company introduced 3 new imported models of Zig Zag Sewing Machines during the year 2003-04 and also introduced Industrial Sewing Machines .
The Company has embarked to work on innovation and value engineering on straight stitch conventional sewing machines and target to offer better machines to capture large market share in the overall industry. The strategies are being put in place to grow the Company's businesses in sewing machines and home appliances to improve profitability. The Company is focusing to accelerate the sales of Zig Zag sewing machines. It is also growing its Industrial sewing machines business amidst the growing demand for these machines. Also, in home appliances segment, it focus upon the selected categories from the range of appliances currently available, and grow them substantially and make their contribution to turnover of home appliances meaningful and eliminate categories/sales channel contributing very thin margins.