The Hindu Business Line : Inlingua plans foray into Maharashtra

WITH four centre and another two in the pipeline in Delhi and National Capital Region since it set up shop in the country in October 2002, the $ 300-million global language training major Inlingua International is now planning to enter Maharashtra in the next one month.

Calling it a "high potential market'', the company targets "a minimum of at least 12 language training centres in the leading cities of Maharashtra in the next two years. ``Mumbai alone will have five centres,'' said Mr Vikram Bajaj, Director at Inlingua India.

The Switzerland-based language training company has given its sole licensee Mr Vikram Bajaj of the Amrit Foundation of Learning Ltd. (AFLL), an arm of the agro-food group Amrit Banaspati Co Ltd (ABCL), the mandate to roll out a proactive campaign for more licensees in the country's top 50 towns. Maharashtra will be the next State that the company will target.

The company, in fact, is in process of reviewing a spate of applications from Maharashtra for licences to operate in the Maharashtra market. "Quality of language training is an issue in India which remains a largely underserved market with very few players at the high-end and poor quality at the mass level. Inlingua launched operations in India with the specific purpose of filling this gap - by making available quality language training to a large chunk of aspirants," said Mr Bajaj.

Inlingua's centres offer language courses in English, French and German. The school offers multi-level courses that give students the flexibility to start at their own level and learn how to speak languages comfortably as they progress from basic (level 1) to advanced (level 5) ability.

Inlingua India is targeting Rs 300 crore sales turnover by training over half-a-million students annually in India over the next four years. It also plans to set up centers across 50 Indian cities by 2008. The company hopes to corner 80 per cent of the country's language training market. It expects the language market to grow by 25 per cent annaually.

Inlingua International has around 300 centres in over 29 countries and over half-a-million clients every year.

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