Coimbatore become an investment hotspot
Coimbatore has become an investment hotspot for mid-sized companies from the Europe, US and the Middle East keen on having their footprint in the south. Good infrastructure, buzzing activity on the SME front, conducive industrial climate and copius supply of skilled manpower are acting in favour of the texcity to lure foreign players. According to the industry, a number of foreign companies have set up ventures either on their own or through the joint venture route. While Erbatech, a German company manufacturing textile finishing and wet processing machinery, has established its factory here at an initial cost of Rs 4 crore, lathe manufacturer Tussor SL Andorra of Spain, has set up its Indian subsidiary with an investment of Rs 180 crore. Ravi Sonalkar, MD, Tussor, said that while production from Spain would go to the European and US markets, lathes made in Coimbatore would be supplied to the rest of the world (Tussor has a market in 40 countries).Sonalkar said that at full production, the plant would supply lathes worth Rs 35-40 crore every month. Hansen Transmissions International of Belgium has decided to invest Rs 970 crore to set up a plant in Coimbatore for producing gearboxes for wind turbines. The plant is slated to be operational by 2008-end. The plant would come up on 2.2 lakh sq m. It would have facilities like a heat treatment plant, assembling, quality assurance and testing. The factory will reach full capacity, with an annual output of 1,500-2,000 gearboxes by early 2010. It will give employment to 600 people. Latest to join the bandwagon is Saudi Arabia-based Al Batterjee group that will set up a new plant in Coimbatore at an estimated cost of $25 million to manufacture babycare products.
Still more in the pipeline are the proposals of UAE-based Ras Al Khaimah Investment Authority (RAKIA) and US-based Control Components Incorporated (CCI). While RAKIA plans to have an IT space, 18-hole golf course, mall, hospital and residential facilities over 650 acres, CCI would be setting up its valve manufacturing plant here that is likely to start operations this fiscal, sources said. The entry of new players has only cheered local industries as they hope to have access to better technology and take advantage of improvement on the quality front. Jaikumar Ramdass, vice-president, Southern India Engineering Manufacturers’ Association, said: “Most of the units have opted for Coimbatore because of the contacts they have with the industries here. Some of the advantages they have are lower overheads, abundant availability of engineering skills and castings”.
