Johnson Lifts, a leading domestic manufacturer of elevators and escalators, is confident of outpacing the industry in growth and plans to increase revenues to ₹2,200 crore by 2019 from about ₹1,400 crore now.

The company says it has a fifth of the 55,000-unit Indian elevator and escalator market, and aims to grow by 15 per cent as against the projected industry growth of 10 per cent.

The company had a CAGR of about 12 per cent till 2014.

There was a dip in 2015, but it is confident of getting back to strong growth curve. In the past one-and-a-half years, it has bagged orders to supply 12,000 units.

Strong after-sales service The Chennai-headquartered firm believes that its strong value chain gives it the edge to take on global players,which are seeing India as their next big market after China.

Johnson expects its penetration into more markets to aid its growth. “We have been successful because of our after-sales service support. We hear from the market that our competition is telling the buyers that their service will be as good as Johnson’s, while marketing their products. This is the benchmark we have set in after-sales, which is the most important thing in this business,” said V Jagannathan, Executive Director, Johnson Lifts.

“We also have an internal benchmark that none of our lifts should breakdown more than three times a year. If any lift crosses this level, we call them rogue lifts and more attention will be given to set them right,” he added.

The 53-year-old company, which sells about 10,000 elevators a year, attributes the success to its flexibility in manufacturing and quick turnaround time.

It has three factories – two in Chennai and one in Nagpur. “Chennai will cater to the South and the East, while Nagpur will serve the West and the North. Our production capacity is about 12,500 units and we have a dedicated unit for escalators,” said Yohan K John, Director.

Smart elevator market Johnson Lifts will join the smart elevator market, believed to be the next big thing in the elevator market.

“We are testing the prototypes, and hopefully, it should hit the market in the next couple of years,” he added.

The company said inventory had increased from 3-3.5 years earlier to about five years due to slowdown in the realty sector.

It is confident that smart city and other public infrastructure projects will spur growth.

It has a 49 per cent JV with Japanese firm Toshiba and the JV – Toshiba Johnson Elevators India focuses more on the premium and high-end segments such as five-star, 7-star and some luxury projects.

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