Businessworld has an article on the revival of the manufacturing industry in Coimbatore.
Arun Natarajan is the Founder of Venture Intelligence, which tracks private equity and venture capital in India and Indian-founded companies worldwide. View sample issues of Venture Intelligence India newsletters and reports.
Also in 2002, the city’s auto-component industry, realising that being local doesn’t help, went in for exports in a big way. Pricol, for instance, has seen exports grow from Rs 22 crore in 2000 to around Rs 60 crore in 2006.
Says G. Ranganathan, CEO, Rover Components, an auto ancillary firm: “For many companies, the share of exports (in total revenues) has gone up from 10 per cent to 25 per cent.”
In fact, for SACL, another auto-component maker, exports already account for a third of its turnover of Rs 130 crore. The company expects that to grow to around half of the topline by the end of this year and, ultimately, to about 60 per cent of revenues. Says M. Manickam, managing director, SACL: “Though the risks are higher, the margins are better in exports.”
Last year, exports accounted for Rs 350 crore of the Rs 2,500 crore revenues of Coimbatore’s auto-component industry. And for the current fiscal, CII, Coimbatore has set targets of Rs 3,300 crore in production and Rs 425 crore in exports.
Arun Natarajan is the Founder of Venture Intelligence, which tracks private equity and venture capital in India and Indian-founded companies worldwide. View sample issues of Venture Intelligence India newsletters and reports.