The company, which has invested around Rs 12 crore in setting up the assembling facility in Industrial Area of Maraimalar Nagar, Kanchipuram District, is planning to invest around Rs 80 crore during the next two to three years to expand it into a manufacturing facility.
Robert Donald Jessen, Managing Director, Auto Ingress Group, said, "With an investment of Rs 12 crore, we chose Chennai for our first operations, as the city is well connected to the sea port and has other aspects to support the market."
Spread across an area of 20,000 Sq ft, the set up will initially function as an assembling and marketing unit for sliding, swing, revolving, telescopic, hermetic doors and gate accessories catering to both, the residential and commercial/industrial sectors across India.
Priced between Rs 50,000 and Rs 3,00,000 per unit, the automatic sensor doors are more effective and cost-efficient, said the company officials.
Initially the workshop with a production capacity of 4,000 units per year will work in single shift, producing around 12 to 15 units a day and providing job opportunities to about 50-80 local skilled people in the city.
Plans are on to grow from being an assembly unit to Automatic Operator manufacturing plant in Chennai in the near future and cater products to the other states in India.
"With growing demand for automatic doors in the hospitality, commercial, and retail sectors, the market is expected to witness improved penetration in end-use segments like residential and healthcare in the upcoming years. To cater to this demand, our R&D department constantly updates our products, customises and designs them to suit various customer needs based on their budgets, including the customised colour and back them up with Competitive Warranty for the track and Smart Digital Device Manager" said Neville David Linford, sales director, Auto Ingress India.
Ana Krishna, Administration Director, Auto Ingress India, said, "Auto Ingress plans to market these products on project basis through its network of Architects and Interior Contractors with Channel Sales, so as to reach out to more customers."
In the next two years the company is targeting to become a leading Automatic door supplier in Asia the Middle East With this launch, Auto Ingress as a brand is expecting an increase of 40 per cent in its turnover, with the Indian subsidiary alone contributing by 50 per cent to the expected growth with target sales of 3500 units in next 2 years.
Auto Ingress is planning to cater to 50-70 per cent of the market demand in India, added Linford. Suresh Panneerselvam, director of the company said that the Indian market for the automatic doors is at around 5,000-6,000 units a year and it is expected to grow to 20,000-30,000 units a year in next couple of years.