Officials said the fire has inflicted a ´huge loss´ on the Group. Worse still, they said the company would need at least six months to restore its supply chain and resume normal business.[break]
"The fire, which started at around 5:20 pm on Sunday, was doused only at 12:30 pm on Monday. So we are yet to carry out preliminary assessment of the loss," said an official at Chaudhary Group (CG), requesting anonymity. "So, we cannot quantify the extent of loss now," he told Republica.
The four buildings of two-story each spread over 80 ropanis were destroyed by the fire. Those were the main warehouse and distribution points of LG, Toshiba, Godrej, Rico and TCL brand of electronics devices. The assembling plant of CG brand of electronic items was also destroyed by the fire.
The exact cause of the fire is still unknown, but no harm were done to human as all the staff, except for guards and senior technicians, had left the premises at around 5:15.
"But the incident is a great tragic because it has seriously jeopardized out supply capacity for Dashain, which is the peak business period," said the official.
Given the situation, officials even feared the company could lose its market position.
At the warehouse were electronics and home appliances including mobile phones, TV sets, DVD players, washing machines, vacuum cleaners and refrigerators of brands like LG, Toshiba, Godrej, Rico and TCL. CG was marketing those products through its subsidiaries CG Impex and LG Electronics.
“"It also had in store a large number of CG products, which were locally assembled and readied for distribution in the market,” said the official.
The group was dealing with CG products through its another subsidiary - CG Electronics.
"We will be having a very tough time for at least next six months because we will now need to import all the products to fulfill the local demand," said the official, adding that the company would first need to rebuild the building before it could resume assembling works and restore operations at the warehouse.
A staff at the warehouse estimated that only around 3 percent of the goods from the warehouse could be saved. "Around 60,000 units of LG mobile phones is believed to have turned into ashes," he stated.
The complex was brought into operations from March, 2005. Around 200 people were working at the warehouse and the assembling plant.
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