Toshiba eyes 8 per cent revenue from elevator business in India

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Japanese company Toshiba's elevators arm is expecting India to contribute 8 per cent to its global revenues, with sales of USD 125 million from the country by 2015

"The contribution of Indian business to our entire elevator business should be about 8 per cent by 2015, and in revenue terms it should be USD 125 million. Our goal is to capture 10 per cent of this market in the premium segment and sell 1,600 units annually," Toshiba Elevator and Building Systems president and chief executive Shinichiro Akiba told a select group of reporters here.

The company, which entered the domestic market last year and has order book for 29 units at present from two realty players, is concentrating on the premium segment.

"We would like to capture volume but our entering strategy here is to capture the high-end market first, where there is less volume, and slowly penetrate the market once we gain traction," he added. Toshiba will focus on the metros in the beginning.

"At this moment, we are trying to capture Delhi-Mumbai corridor... Ultimately we will expand nationally. Probably, by 2014-15 we will expand nationally," he said. The company plans to target the residential space first to get a foothold in the market.

Akiba further said the domestic elevator market is growing at a CAGR of 11 per cent, the highest globally, which makes this market all the more important for Toshiba.

"If we talk about future growth in the next five years, India is the highest and we cannot ignore it. So far we have no specific ties with developers but we are trying to make it happen," he added.

The domestic elevator market is dominated by Otis, Olympus, Hitachi and Mitsubishi among others, and Akiba said the challenge for his company is to capture the higher-end.

When asked if the company plans to have a greenfield unit here, he said, "At this time we don't have any concrete plans to set up a production centre, but for sure by 2015 we will have something and we need to look at the possibilities of having a production facility here if we need to penetrate this market and cater to a large volume."

Akiba said the company is also looking at mergers and acquisitions, but added that it is too early to comment.

The company also plans to hire more people to improve its sales force, including commissioning and installing teams.

"Right now we have a little over 10 people here in the sales but we will have about 300 people some time soon."