Du Pont to set up India knowledge centre

Du Pont India, a subsidiary of the 203-year-old $27 billion EI du Pont de Nemours and Company based in the US, plans to set up a knowledge centre in India in the next three years. This could see the research and development strength of the company rise ten-fold to about 700 employees.

The knowledge centre, for which Bangalore, Pune and Hyderabad are currently being considered, will primarily cater to the domestic market needs, with potential for other Asian and global markets as well. Based on these plans, the company expects its Indian operations to continue its current growth rate of 20-25 per cent and clock revenues of around $1 billion (about Rs 4,450 crore) by 2010-11. Last financial year, the revenues stood at $350 million (Rs 1,600 crore).

"Du Pont India has grown at a CAGR of 20-25 per cent over the past five years and we expect this growth to continue over the next five years as well," said Balvinder Singh Kalsi, president and chief executive, Du Pont India. The science and technology firm is bullish on the strategic importance of the Indian market to its overall global operations. Currently, India contributes about 1.3 per cent of global revenues and this could more than double in the next five years.

"India is at the heart of the Du Pont's 'Go Where the Growth Is' strategy," said Kalsi, adding that the company's growth drivers in the domestic market would be the agriculture and food, automobile, safety and healthcare and construction sectors. "Our growth in India will primarily come in the form of human resource. Our strength will go up from the current 700 to 3,000-4,000 employees by 2010," Kalsi said. The skilled manpower addition will mainly be in the segments of research and development, product application development and intellectual property abilities.

This will also fall in line with the company's global plans to grow its annual revenues by at least $2 billion from products that create energy efficiencies and greenhouse gas emission reductions, besides doubling annual revenues from non-depletable resources to at least $8 billion by 2015. The company also intends to introduce at least 1,000 new products or services.

Like most enterprises in the West, to move its manufacturing base, Du Pont is also looking east, towards Asia, where not only the emerging markets are located but also both producing and manpower offer cost advantages lie. Du Pont officials said to continue growing at over 20 per cent, the company would have to set up more facilities in India, adding that no concrete plans, however, were made yet.