Gandhinagar, India — Italian auxiliary equipment maker Piovan SpA plans to set up manufacturing in India by the end of next year, a company executive said at the recent Plastindia trade show.
The Santa Maria di Sala-based company has a sales and service operation in Mumbai and is now searching for a suitable location for a factory.
“The plant would likely be based at Mumbai or down south in Chennai. The location would largely depend on our majority customer base,” said Peter Dal Bo, chief commercial officer for Piovan.
He said local production would bring down delivery time, since equipment is currently shipped from Italy, and reduce costs by eliminating import duties.
The facility would likely be operating in the next 18 months, he said.
He said Piovan plans to bring greater responsibility to the India unit.
“We are also making the India operation as a service hub for the Asian and Middle Eastern markets,” he said.
“We will initially begin with basic machines... customized to Indian conditions and raise the range over a period of time as per requirements of the market,” he said.
Piovan estimates India's plastic auxiliary equipment market at between 50 and 100 million euros a year and growing at 8 to 10 percent annually.
The company has sales of about 2 million euros a year in the country, and is increasing about 10 percent a year, he said, adding that the company hoped to double that with the facility in the country.