John Crane to put pound 3 mn in B'lore

John Crane Sealing Systems India Pvt Ltd, a 100 per cent subsidiary of the UK-based £2 billion Smiths Group Plc and manufacturer of engineered sealing systems and solutions, and associated technology, plans to invest £3 million in its Bangalore facility in the next three years.

The company has just completed its first round of £3 million investment to set up a centre of excellence.

Said Ray Dorey, managing director, John Crane Asia Pacific, "We are now geared up to service our Indian customers in both the OEM and after-market with a new manufacturing facility and a centre of excellence in Bangalore."

The company, on Thursday, opened a new gas seal service and repair facility at John Crane centre in Bangalore, which employs 210 people.

With this facility, the company will help Asian customers to significantly reduce the turnaround time on gas seal repair and maintenance projects. The facility, which makes 750 components a day, is also equipped with full seal-failure analysis capability, he said.

Dorey said the Bangalore facility would be the key manufacturing hub for mechanical seals for the domestic market. It provides fully-assembled power transmission couplings for both the Indian and Asia-Pacific regions. It will also provide coupling components for assembly at other John Crane facilities.

John Crane's Indian subsidiary will focus on expanding its market in India and also export to Asia Pacific, Europe and the US. The Indian market for sealing solutions and associated technologies is worth £22.4 million, of which John Crane presently has a 10 per cent marketshare.

Of the overall £22.4 million market, gas seals account for 3.5 per cent. John Crane, which has a 76.5 per cent share in this segment, hopes to further up its share with the new facility in Bangalore, Dorey said.

John Crane's major clients in India include Reliance Petrochemicals, Essar Group, Chambal Fertilisers, BPCL, IOC, HPCL, ONGC and GAIL and original pump and equipment makers like KSB Pumps Ltd, BHEL, Mantourbo, Sulzer, Flowserve, ITT and WEHR.

During the first year of its operations in India, the company is looking at £5 million worth of sales, of which 50 per cent will be from the exports, he said.

The Bangalore centre will also support John Crane's software development, database administration and web-maintenance activities.