Chennai: The Swiss headquartered industrial fan manufacturer Flakt Woods has decided to increase component imports from India. The company currently imports fan components like aluminum fan blades from India worth Euro 7 million.

Elaborating on the plans Flakt group chief executive officer Didier Forget, said, "The European market for industrial fans grow by just 2 per cent per annum. As a result the one way to increase the profitability is to reduce the component costs." The group is looking at India, China and Eastern Europe for sourcing components. Flakt sources component worth around Euro 260 million per year.

"We are looking for castings, plastic mouldings, motors and the like from India and other countries." According to Forget, investment in tooling at the suppliers end would be made if necessary.

For the industrial fan major, the Indian strategy is two fold viz (a) initially to have India as a sourcing base for components and later make its Indian subsidiary Flakt (India) Limited the production hub for South East Asia and West Asia and (b) grow Flakt India in the domestic market launching new products.

To realise the second goal, Flakt India is now targeting new market segments the residential and commercial buildings with basement car park. For this segment Flakt India has launched the ductless ventilation system/basement car park exhaust fan system.

The fan with sensors will switch on automatically when it senses the car park air quality deteriorating below certain levels to remove the stale air and to infuse fresh air. "This way there will be savings in the power cost. In the conventional exhaust system, the fan has to run 24 hours resulting in high power consumption," claims Flakt India's MD & CEO, Anil Baijal.

According to him the company has orders for around 400 units and has plans to sell around 4,500 units in a year.

The Rs70 crore turnover Flakt India has two plants. It Chennai plant fabricates large industrial fans used in cement, steel and power sectors. The Kolkata plant manufactures smaller fans for light industries. According to Baijal, the company has plans to invest around Rs20 crore in the two plants to enhance the production capacity. Last year the company invested a similar sum in the two plants.