Simon sees India as its second-largest global mkt after China

Spain-based switch maker Simon, which is relaunching its entire India operations, sees the country as its second-largest global market after China.
The company is investing around Rs 25 crore in next three years on R&D, marketing and branding and will also upgrade the quality and expand range of its products here.
"We are looking at India to be our second-biggest global market after China... India's mid-segment population is growing and hence we would have greater opportunity in the high-end segment products," Simon Holding SL International Business Director Luis Baselga told PTI.
However, Baselga did not mention any time frame for the expansion.

Simon has a group turnover of 266 million euros, in which one-third comes from Spain, another one-third from China and rest from other global markets.
Moreover, Simon, which is also aiming to participate in the smart city projects, has started interactions over it.

"We have started interaction at the government level. Barcelona (headquarter) has a team, which is already interacting at the top level. Once we see the opportunity and we would decide upon," said Indo Simon Electric CEO Amit Garg.
The company has participated in the Barcelona smart city project and installed its products there.
"Barcelona is itself a smart city and Simon has installed its product there. We would that do that here also," said Baselga.

Simon, which had forayed into India seven year back, is on a relaunching drive to tap the electrical wiring devices and lighting control systems category.
"We have decided to launch a completely new range with a new concept of variety of colors which is quite uncommon in the switch industry here with high developed quality which is now controlled from Spain," Garg said.
The company has called its design and R&D team from Spain to India to enhance the design and quality level of products.
According to Garg: "It was the right time to be here as our sector which is largely driven by real estate is picking up. The company is targeting the consultants and architects to place its high end switch gears into the luxury flats."

He added: "We are also talking to some of the builders to take our high-end products along with the lighting solution we have."
Currently, Simon has presence in northern region only and would expand its sales network pan-India from next year.
Simon competes with Schneider and Libra in global market and offers more than 3,500 varieties of products with sales network covering over 94 countries.