Johnson Lifts Eyes New Markets In Dubai, Kenya, Bangladesh

Johnson Lifts Pvt Ltd, the 56-year old India’s leading manufacturer of Elevators and Escalators with more than 1 lakh installations, 22 per cent market share in elevators segment and 48 per cent market share in escalator segment within India, is now looking at inorganic growth through acquisitions and otherwise, in new geographies like Dubai, Kenya. The company is also exploring all options in neighboring Bangladesh, which is a huge potential market and their foray into the Bangladesh market may happen within the next three months.

The Chennai-headquartered Rs 2000 crore company, at present exports its elevators and escalators to countries like Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Maldives, Tanzania. The current exports, which stands at 6 percent of the company’s total revenues, is expected to grow 10 percent year-on-year from here onwards, said Albert Dhiraviyam, Country Head (Marketing), Johnson Lifts Pvt Ltd.

The company is extremely bullish about the growth of the infrastructure sector in India and hopes to garner larger revenue from the Commercial and Infrastructure sectors like Railways, Metro Rail, Airports, Shopping malls, other large commercial developments. “At present, 70 percent of our revenue comes from the residential sector, while the remaining 30 percent comes from the Commercial and Infrastructure segment. Going forward (maybe over the next two years), the contribution of the Commercial and Infrastructure segment will go up to 40 percent. We have already done 12 metro projects, 27 airports and over 800 elevators in railway stations and many more are in the pipeline,” said Dhiraviyam.

The company has 2 ultra-modern elevator factories in Chennai and Nagpur- each with a capacity of manufacturing 5000 lifts per annum and one escalator factory in Oragadam with a capacity of 6000 lifts per annum. It has an overall capacity of manufacturing 16000 lifts and 1200 escalators per annum. “At present, we are operating at 70 percent capacity utilizations, while we have utilised only 40 percent of the land parcels available with us and therefore we can easily ramp up our capacities if need be,” he said.

Interestingly, it has recently put up a new integrated, robotic lift factory at a 1.4 lakh sq ft facility at Sengadu, near Chennai with a total capital outlay of Rs 125 crore and another line for heavy-duty escalators at the Oragadam plant to manufacture 500 escalators per annum with an investment of Rs 25 crore.

Dhiraviyam said that there has been significant growth in the opportunities available owing to the major Urban Infrastructure Development initiatives. The growing opportunities have attracted many multinational players, hence bringing in stiff competition in excellence and efficiency. They are proud to stand through this competition and yet be preferred, thus retaining number one position in the market, he said, adding that they could hold on to their position thanks to the establishment of the strong after-sales service network, service practices, quick responses and capability in large project management.