Faxander: Eye on the future

Calcutta, Nov. 4: Sandvik Asia Private Ltd, a subsidiary of Swedish company Sandvik AB, is targeting a revenue of Rs 2,800 crore in 2012 from India against Rs 2,200 crore last year. The engineering group, which provides equipment solutions to mining, construction and auto industries, is looking to tap opportunities in the country to beat the sluggish growth in Europe and stagnation in the US.

Though India ranks No. 12 in its global operations, the country has potential to be among the top five markets soon, with demand for high mechanised tools rising in the coal sector, Olof Faxander, president and CEO of Sandvik AB, said.

In a bid to gain a bigger market share, Sandvik plans to deviate from its focus on high-end products to introduce mid-market products for India this year.

“We are stepping up our level of ambition in India. We see a lot of opportunities here and we want to grow faster than we have in the past. I think there is so much more business we can do here. We have done a market study and have set specific targets. We acquired a mid-market company in the construction sector and products from this company will be introduced this year. Hopefully, we will have our first sale before the end of this year. It is very likely that India will be among the top five markets globally,” said Faxander.

“We see coal as a sector with great opportunities. There is a big need to develop the domestic coal industry. The challenge is to automate and mechanise the mining process to make it more productive and efficient. We work with products mainly for underground coal mining. Need is clearly there,” he said.

Sandvik’s European business has taken a hit, which has been compensated to an extent by Asia. Coal India is one of its major clients. However, projects in coal have got delayed because of political issues and problems in acquiring licences.

The engineering group has five factories in Pune, Mehsana, Hosur, Hyderabad and Chiplun (Maharashtra).