Blackstone-owned Copeland, which makes compressors, has big plans in India and one of them is to increase its share of exports from the country, which is already a major exporting hub for its products at around 60 per cent of its total output.
Copeland, which sells a wide range of heating, cooling, and refrigeration systems, recently announced an investment of ₹500 crore in India to expand its manufacturing capacity, and to set up a new research and development centre in Pune and an IT centre. The company has an existing engineering centre in Satara, which helps the local India manufacturing business while the new R&D centre will support its global growth.
Market expansion
The new manufacturing unit will be making an advanced scrolls compressor, adding to its existing range that is sold to all leading original equipment makers in the air conditioning industry. “We are seeing India has a huge market opportunity and is experiencing significant growth in HVAC (heating, ventilation, air conditioning) space,” Sandeep Gupta, Vice President and Managing Director, Copeland India told businessline. “Our customers want reliability and support from local manufacturers. So it is an important part of our supply chain network for our customers,” he added.
Copeland has an existing manufacturing facility in Pune and the investment will increase its capacity by an additional 7,350 square meters over the next five years in terms of space. Its current manufacturing capacity is 1.5 million units.
The expansion will also open up North America as a new export market for the company, which currently exports largely to Asia and South America. Gupta added that the share of exports from India will go up after the expansion but did not quantify it.
He added that this was a significant investment being made in the country in nearly two decades.
Copeland was previously part of the Emerson group and has been in India for over three decades. It started as a joint venture with the Kirloskar group. Last year private equity funds managed by Blackstone completed the acquisition of a majority stake in the company from Emerson, which sold its remaining stake in it to Blackstone in June this year.