The Hindu Business Line : KPIT Cummins sets $100-m turnover target

Expansion spree
Bangalore facilities to be consolidated at a new location.
To be functional by mid-2007 and is looking at seating capacity of 2,000.
Is also looking at expansion within Pune.
MIDC has allotted 20 acres to the company.

Pune , July 13

The city-based KPIT Cummins Infosystems Ltd is to begin operations in Wroclaw in Poland and is expanding in Pune and Bangalore.

Talking to newspersons after the company's annual general meeting, Mr Ravi Pandit, Chairman and Group Chief Executive Officer, and Mr Girish Wardadkar, President and Executive Director, said the company had set a target of $100 million - for the year 2006-07 - five years ago when the company had a turnover of $12 million. The company had clocked a turnover of $73 million for the year ended March 2006.

Near shore facility

Mr Girish said as part of providing `near shore' development facility, the company is setting up a centre in Wroclaw, Poland. The centre would be known as KPIT Infosystems Central Europe Ltd and would have about 100 engineers by the end of the current fiscal and is expected to grow to 400 within the next few years.

Mr Girish said that this centre would not only take care of IT services, but also BPO. Investment that would be utilised for this would be to the tune of $2 million. He added that the focus from this centre would be on banking and financial services, manufacturing ERP specifically SAP practice and engineering. The centre would be operational by September 2006, he said.

Hinjewadi project

Mr Ravi said the second phase of the Hinjewadi project spanning over two lakh sq. ft. area would be fully operational by September and would be able to house 4,000 engineers. The company has in the first phase occupied 1,50,000 sq. ft. and the entire area is spread over 10-acre land. It would be consolidating all its operations at Hinjewadi, while keeping its city office functional.

Mr Ravi said the company is also looking at expansion within the city. He added that the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation is coming up with a special economic zone and has allotted 20 acres to KPIT.

He said the company, which has two facilities at Bangalore, one caters to the VLSI and the other for the automotive, would be again consolidated at a new location. This facility would also be functional by mid-2007 and is looking at a seating capacity of 2,000 people.

Mr Ravi said now the Bangalore facilities have about 500 employees on its rolls and would have about 800 by the year-end.

Mr Girish said that the focus for the current year would be profitability, employee attrition, non-star customer growth and diversified financial services business. He added that the attrition rate of the company stood at 21 per cent last fiscal, which included trainees, contractors and also those whose contracts had not been renewed.