Henkel to invest Rs 400 crore on India expansion plan

Mumbai, Feb 4 () German company Henkel on Tuesday said it will invest 50 million euro for brownfield expansion activities in the adhesives business in India over the next five years.

It announced the inauguration of a Rs 400 crore or 50 million euro facility at Kurkumbh near Pune on Tuesday built over the last four years.

"What we have launched is phase one and two of the facility, we will be doing phase three and four for sure. At the end of five years, our cumulative investments at the facility will be Euro 100 million," its board member and executive Vice President of Henkel Adhesive Technologies, Jan-Dirk Auris told reporters here.

The facility at Kurkumbh, the seventh manufacturing unit in India, is spread over 25 acres land and will be focused on making adhesives primarily for the Indian market and there will also be a bit of exports, its president for India, Shilip Kumar said.

A company executive explained that there is extra land available within the same plot for expansion and it is also buying a 6.6 acre parcel located next to it for the expansion.

India is the third largest among the emerging markets for the USD 9-billion adhesives business globally, and the company said that in 2015, its domestic turnover had touched Rs 1,600 crore.

Till now, the company has invested up to 400 million euro in India since entering the country in 1997, Auris said, adding that it employs close to 1,000 people.

Kumar said the new facility employs 320 people directly and indirectly.

He said the addressable market opportunity in India, where competes with global majors like 3M, is over USD 1 billion per annum.

The biggest revenue segment is automobiles, followed by the packaging industry, he said, adding that the electronics segment is also catching up on sales. AA BAL BAL