Grain Of Truth

largest player in the Indian elevator industry with about 60 %

market share anli a country wide network. It also heads the

escalator business with an almost 100 % share of the market.

With increasing urbanisation the company is ideally placed to tap

the potential growth in elevator demand in the wake of the boom

in the economy.

Otis's association with United technology which owns 45% of the

company's equity, gives it unmatched access to the latest

technology and products. The company has introduced three new

elevator models in the last one year to maintain its market

dominance. OTIS is the technology leader in the domestic market

and is the only company with an ISO certification. The company

has two state of the art production facilities at Kandivili and

Jagani. The Kandavili plant of OTIS is the largest manufacturing

factory in India with an annual capacity of 2000 elevators and 24

escalators. The Jagini plant became fully operational in March

1997, with a technical collaboration with Otis elevator company

of the USA an Nippon Otis of Japan.

Jointly promoted by Otis US (45% equity) and Mabindra Mahindra

(28%), the company has an installed base of over 25, 000

elevators and an installed capacity to manufacture 2000 elevators

and 24 escalators per annnum at it's Kandivili plant in Mumbai.

Having invested an unmatched sales and service network span ning

the length and breadth of the country, access to the best and lat

est elevator technology in the world and the only R&D test tower

in the country to boot, certainly gives Otis the ideal cutting

edge. And to provide impetus to its man ufacturing capability,

the company has set up an absolute state of the art manufacturing

plant at Jigani near Bangalore.

There has been a substantial shift in the domestic market from

the older models of callapsible gates to safer and technically

superior automatic door models. Otis is expected to benefit

from the potential in the replacement also.

The company currently has about 50 % share of this segment and

has come out with a new type of automatic door unit to meet the

potential replacement demand.

With this the company is expected to increase its share by 10 to

15 % in the coming years. Otis is currently the only domestic

player in the high value segment of servo driven and gearless

models of elevators.

The company has sharply increased its focus on the roll out of

new products. Faster upgradation of products has always bene-

fited company in further her establishing its position. The

company has bagged the largest ever contract of 187 million

rupees to supply and maintain 42 elevators in the IT park in

Bangalore.

Otis 2001 model for the medium rise residential building,

Elevonoc 411 for the skyscrapers, Otis 300 VVVF etc are some of

the model of Otis.

The Otis 300 VVVF launched in August 1996 is the most expen-

sive model in the market, is a generation ahead of the

isting models in terms of sophistication and, safety.

The company has consistently out paced the growth in the

industry. Turnover was sharply up 47% to 2,095 million fuelled by

54% growth in new elevator installation, driven by clearing of

the backlog of the order bookings and a 38% jump in the service

income. It is expected that the gross turnover will rise to 2,460

million inthe financial year 97.

At present considering its leadership position manufacturing

facilities, product range, unmatched sales and service network

and its almost generic brand value status, in the coming years

to be, advantage lies with Otis.