German firm plans plant in TN

Sew-Eurodrive India, a fully-owned subsidiary of German transmission products company Sew Eurodrive GmbH, plans to set up an assembly plant in the booming Sriperumbudur area near Chennai on an investment of Rs 30-35 crore.

This will be the second manufacturing unit for Sew-Eurodrive in India after Vadodara (Gujarat). The Sriperumbudur plant is proposed to assemble gear motors, various types of gearboxes, electrical motors, variable speed frequency invertors and industrial gear units, among others.

The plant, which will come up on a 4-acre site, will also house facilities to cater to the servicing needs of its products. Construction work on the facility is currently underway and commercial production is expected to commence by October 2008.

The plant will import parts from its mother plant in Germany and assembly at Sriperumbudur to cater to its customers in India.

The Sriperumbudur plant, which is expected to employ about 125 people, will see the company increasing its capacity eightfold over the next few years. At present, production capacity stands at about 300 units a week for all products and will reach 1,200 units post-expansion, according to a company official.

The Indian operations garnered revenues of Rs 65-70 crore last year and the company is targeting over Rs 100 crore by the end of this year. The company's major customers belong to the textile and construction segments.

Sew Eurodrive GmbH, a leading manufacturer of geared products, runs assembly plants in 30 countries and sales and marketing offices in over 60 countries. It employs 11,500 people globally and the annual turnover of the company exceeds 1.5 billion euros.

The company commenced its India operations in Vadodara in 1997 and employs 130 people with sales and service offices in 14 locations across the country.