Friday, July 13, 2012

BANGALORED! Carl Zeiss opens research, assembly line

The 4.2-billion euro German manufacturing company Carl Zeiss has established a research and development unit and two manufacturing facilities in Electronics City in Bangalore.

Carl Zeiss has been present in India since1998,butlargely as a sales and service business. The company manufactures an array of products ranging from prescription spectacle lenses to diagnostic and surgical equipments that are used in the fields of ophthalmology, neuro-surgery and cancer treatment, and in camera lenses. It also manufactures precision measurement tools that are used in the auto, aerospace, and power sectors, besides manufacturing equipments required for the manufacture of integrated chips.

Speaking to Media before inaugurating the company’s Bangalore campus, Michael Kaschke, president and CEO of Carl Zeiss AG, said, “The investment into developing the infrastructure at our campus is Rs 30 crore.” He added that the company’s total investment in India, which includes acquisition of assets, is 25 million euro over the past 8 years. The R&D, which has the abbreviated name CARIn (Center for Applications and Research in India), will focus on the medical technology sector andlooktodevelop medical equipments tailored to the Indian market requirements.

“In ophthalmology,thereis an 80% chance that a doctor in India would be using Zeiss equipment,” said Kaschke. The company won’t be manufacturing medical equipments in India,butthe medicalequipment portfolio contributes a high percentage to its India revenueof Rs 600crore.

“I foresee that in India, by 2015-16, we will have 1,000 employees (from 300 at present) and our revenues would cross Rs 1,000 crore,” said Kaschke, and added, “India is evolving into a strategic business segmentof theZeissGroup.”

On the manufacturing front, the company has established an assembly line that would assemble precision measurement tools. But the biggest space allocation at the company’s Electronics City campus would be for the setting up of a prescription spectacle lens manufacturing facility.The manufacturing facility will have an installed capacity to produce 2,000 lenses a day, which could be scaled up to produce12,000lenses per day.

V Srinivasan, MD, Carl Zeiss India, said, “Some 500 million people needeye glasses in India. But the addressable market, meaning, people who can afford to buy them is only 125 million.”

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