Kone plans R&D centre near Chennai

The Indian operations of Finland-based elevator company Kone Corporation is emerging as a key hub for the company's global operations and growth plans by providing software and engineering services support as well as manpower in its major markets.

The Rs 381 crore Kone Elevator India, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Kone Corporation, has a market share of 26% in the Indian elevator market estimated at 2,10,000 elevators in 2006. The other leading players in India are Otis, Schindler, Mitsubishi and Thyssen.

Kone set up its global software development centre in Chennai about six years ago, and the centre has been providing software support for Kone's worldwide requirements. The software centre presently employs about 50 people. 

Encouraged by the success of software operations, the company also set up a global engineering centre four years ago at its factory at Vanagaram near Chennai. The 15,000 sq. ft engineering centre, which employs 80 engineers, has been providing complicated engineering drawing services for the US and European markets. 

Kone India is also in the process of setting up an R&D centre, which will initially employ about 20 people at its factory to address the requirements of the Asian markets including India.

Kone India's staff is in great demand for Kone's worldwide operations. Kone Corporation will be deploying about 100 Indian staff working in the areas of installation and maintenance in the US, UK, Spain and Singapore.

"We are becoming a main centre for supplying resources to our parent company. In the past, we sent about 60 people from India to Middle East for providing support services," said A Sankarakrishnan, managing director, Kone Elevator India.

Kone's Chennai factory, spread over an area of 8.4 acre, has a capacity to produce around 6,000 elevators a year. The company delivered about 4,000 elevators in 2006. It is also a leading player in the escalator business in India with a market share of about 26 per cent. The escalator market in India is estimated at 800-1,000 units a year. It imports escalators from its China unit for sale in India.

Kone India, which employs about 2,000 people, is looking at expanding production capacity at its manufacturing unit.