Interface, world's largest carpet tile maker plans India unit

Company has identified the world's second largest population as focus market

Interface, the world’s largest maker of commercial carpet tiles, is planning to start making products in India, said Rob Coombs, president and chief executive (Asia-Pacific).

“We have identified India and China as our focus markets. The two markets together would emerge as big as the US market over the next 10 years. So, local production is important. Besides, we may also look at serving markets like Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and the West Asian nations from India,” said Coombs.

Interface imports products from Thailand for India. It had entered India in 2001.

Coombs said India was a tougher, aggressive and low-margin market but still scalable. “India is currently the third largest market for us in the Asia-Pacific. We expect to cross $50 million in revenue in India from the present level of $20 million in the next five years,” he said. It gets $500 million from the US market.