The Hindu Business Line : Fenner plans to expand reach through overseas foray

FENNER (India) Ltd, a major player in the industrial and automotive v-belts and power transmission products segment, is looking for expanding its reach by either acquiring or establishing manufacturing facilities both in India and abroad.

The company has also launched an aggressive marketing drive to create awareness about the new products by organising a series of seminars across the country to which leaders from various industries will be invited.

Mr C. Suresh Kumar, Vice-President - Sales and Marketing, told Business Line here on Wednesday that the company was exporting to around 50 countries its products - mainly polymer and engineering products and the export income was nearly Rs 25-30 crore.

Asked about the reason for looking into gaining a foreign footprint , he said the company wanted to increase its export turnover. With globalisation there were a number of countries that were looking for quality sourcing from countries, such as India and China.

India scored over the latter because of consistency in quality and Fenner was advantageously placed to exploit this opportunity since it has secured international quality certificates, including the American Petroleum Institute (API) certification.

He said the company was holding discussions with consultants regarding due diligence etc, but so far no decision regarding any specific location has been taken.

In India also, the company was looking at establishing a greenfield plant, but a final decision will be taken after proper evaluation.

In so far as foreign foray was concerned, the company was open to the idea of takeover of an existing unit or establishing a greenfield manufacturing facility. He would not go into issues like the size of the investment planned as it was for the company's board to decide.

He said the company's turnover during 2003-04 was around Rs 285 crore.

During the current year, he expected the company to grow by about 15-20 per cent with the performance of the polymer and engineering divisions to be higher than the textile division.

Mr Suresh Kumar also sought a level playing field for the domestic manufacturers of timing belts vis-à-vis its importers. Mr Kamal Sukhija, Senior General Manager-Marketing, Power Transmission Division, FIL, Chennai, said for the first time, the company has made an institutional launch of its new products such as synchronous belts (timing belts, HTD belts and Torque Drive Plus belts), new range of modular gear boxes/geared motors, fluid couplings at Coimbatore.

This would be followed by similar exercise in Baroda, Ahmedabad, Ludhiana, Delhi, Hyderabad and Kolkata that would provide an opportunity to institutional buyers to know about the products, their pricing etc.

The company has tied up with an Italian company for the supply of modular gearboxes.

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