COO's Message

Alan J. Power, who serves as the president of Tomkins Industrial and Automotive Group and Chief Operating Officer of Gates corporation envisions India as a growth market and sees the opportunity to invest in viable options. In his visit to India in first week of August, he took a stock of the situation in India along with interaction with the workforce Mr. Power said that Indian operations during 2010 had yielded a turnover of $70 million and during 2011 this is expected to jump to $100 million. The company is witnessing 30% plus growth over last year and gates India would by end of 2013 attain a turnover of $200million. The vision of the company is to advance the science of motion performance by being the partner of choice for the most trusted services, systems and components for power transmission and fluid transfer applications. Thus, our Endeavour would be to focus on our customers, our people, continuous improvement, safety and sustainability which should lead us to profitable growth. The company that has two major plants in Chennai and Chandigarh and two other smaller plants in Pune and Faridabad, said it will invest $20 million in the next two years to expand capacity to meet rising demand. He said " in order to meet the target, the company will invest $20 million (nearly Rs 90 crore) on increasing capacity of its plants, mainly in Chennai and Chandigarh". Half of the planned investments will be made this year and the rest in the next year, he added. In India, the company offers products and services in automotive, construction, oil and gas, and general engineering segments. Gates has so far been servicing requirements of oil and gas sector in India from its Middle East operations, will now do it directly through the Indian arm, Power said. He also said the company will hire around 400-500 people to enhance manpower in line with the expansion plans in India. Gates Corp currently has 1,200 employees in the country. With India becoming a focus market, Gates Corporation will also shift its IT support centre and back-end operations for transactions to its Delhi office along with some engineering resources. Asked if the company would also be looking for acquisitions in India, Power said: "In the past we have looked at that option but we did not find it to be viable. However, if we do come across good options we are open to it". Gates Corp, which expects to clock turnover of $3.3 billion, has already invested $60 million in India.