Johnson Lifts has opened a heavy duty escalator manufacturing facility at Oragadam near Chennai with an investment of ₹100 crore.

The 54-year-old homegrown player hopes to retain its leadership position in heavy duty applications such as metros, railway stations and foot overbridges with own manufacturing advantages.

“Public infrastructure segment will be the key driver of growth for heavy duty escalators. Having an own facility will provide the advantages of quick delivery and better servicing capabilities,” John K John, Chairman & Managing Director, Johnson Lifts, said here.

The heavy duty escalator facility has been set up with technology know-how from the Chinese company SJEC, which helped Johnson to make light duty commercial escalators, meant for malls and large shops, in 2009. The company has added 60-70 new jobs with the new unit.

The ₹1,600-crore company, a market leader in elevators and escalators, has achieved 80 per cent localisation for its escalators and has developed its own supply chain industry, said Joint Managing Director VM Thomas.

Market share

With metro rail projects driving strong demand for escalators, Johnson Lifts has garnered about 36 per cent market share with the supply of 1,000 escalators across metro projects.

“Over the next 3-4 years, there will be requirement for 4,000 escalators in the public infrastructure segment like railway stations. Also, cities with population of about 20 lakh are expected to build metro projects in future. So, both railway stations and metro projects will drive strong demand for escalators,” said V Jagannathan, Executive Director.

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