A Legacy of Innovation: Lapp India

By OEM Update Editorial October 26, 2016 8:57 am IST

Having an annual turnover of Rs 500 crore and over 300 employees, our Indian subsidiary is significant for our Group’s business.

Driven by German legacy and innovation in technology, Lapp India is bringing revolutionary cable and connection technologies to the Indian market. In an tête-à-tête with Subhajit Roy, Lapp India’s Managing Director Marc Jarrault takes us through the journey of his company in India. Excerpts:

To start with, could you brief us about your company highlighting some of the major milestones in the Indian market?
Headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany, Lapp Group is a 60-year old company supplying integrated solutions in the field of cable and connection technology. We have more than 3,500 employees working in 40 countries across the world. In India, we started our journey in 1996 with a manufacturing unit in Jigani, Bengaluru. In 2012, we started another manufacturing facility in Pilukedi, Bhopal which produces more than 216,000 kms of single core cables per annum, catering mainly to the building cable segment. The production area at Jigani was also doubled in 2014 and a new multi-core line was commissioned in Bhopal with a total investment of over 5 million Euros. Having an annual turnover of Rs 500 crore and over 300 employees, our Indian subsidiary is significant for our Group’s business.

Our core market is in the industrial machinery and plant engineering sector. The focus segments for us are food and beverages, pharmaceuticals, automation, textile, automotive, machine tools, oil and gas, renewable energy, process industries, as well as the infrastructure and building sector.

In renewable energy sector, we are one of the key players in solar segment. We have catered to over 2.5 GW of grid-connected projects across India. 2.5 GW of grid connected projects across India.

Lapp has also been an integral part of key infrastructure projects like metro rails. In India, we have worked for state-of-the-art HVAC solutions underground metro stations in Chennai and Bengaluru. We have also supplied lighting solutions for Delhi Metro.

Tell us about the product and solutions you offer.
Our portfolio includes standard and highly flexible cables, industrial connectors and connection sealing technology, customised system solutions,
automation technology and robotics solutions for the intelligent factory of the future, as well as technical accessories.

Out of the two domains – industrial machinery and plant engineering sector –where do you find more business opportunities as far as Indian market is concerned?
Post World War II, Germany has emerged as one of the top machine builders in the world. Being a German company, our core competency also lies in machine building. Over the year, we have also gained significant expertise in plant engineering. In India, we see equal opportunities in machine building as well as infrastructure space.

With strong focus on innovation, we keep investing in India. We have developed Electron Beam Cables (E-Beam) in our sister company’s facility in Goa. These specially-designed cables for solar power sector come with 25-year warranty. We are also developing aluminium-based cables which are cost-effective compared to copper wires that result in low-cost energy infrastructure thereby contributing to sustainable development.

What are the major applications for this E-Beam cable?
E-Beam cables have diverse applications. However major applications include solar and metro rails. The beauty of E-Beam cables is it is very light in weight because it requires very less quantity compound of cover. Electron beaming or chemicals are used to coat the cable instead of using PVC or other material covers. Electron beaming also makes cables stronger and flexible which enable superior electrical and thermal performance in demanding applications and extreme environments.

How do you see the acceptance of such products in India? What’s your comment on the competitiveness?
We try to bring value to the customers not only in terms of products but also with solutions and services. Our strength is how fast we can deliver the product because it gives competitive advantage to our clients by minimising operational downtime. We are highly differentiated from our customers in the logistic side – we accept orders in any minimum order quantity (MOQ) within a delivery period of 2 days for some fast moving products.

In the machine building segment, could you name some of the major OEMs in India with whom you are working?
Apart from cables, we offer connectors and assemblies – so it’s an end-to-end solution. Around 40 per cent of our sales come from harness cable. In the textile segment Laxmi Machine Works (LMW) is one of our prestigious clients with whom we are working for more than a decade. ACE Micromatic and BFW are our key partners in the machine building segment.

Are you working on expanding your business network in India?
We have an extensive dealership network of around 140 channel partners. We plan to further grow the dealership network as we look at expanding our reach. We have established adequate warehouse to be close to our customers as we believe efficient supply chain will be the key differentiator in the coming years.