August 25 -- Betting big on the Indian agriculture mechanization market, US-headquartered Briggs and Stratton plans to aggressively expand capacity at its Coimbatore plant, eyeing a sales turnover of $50 million in three years.
Company
officials said the New York Stock Exchange-listed firm, the world's largest
producer of air-cooled gasoline engines for outdoor power equipment, had sales
of $ 2 million in 2011-12 in India.
Briggs
and Stratton, which had global revenues of $ 2.1 billion last year, acquired
Coimbatore-based Premier Power Products in a $ 3 million deal last year.
The
company targeted at small and marginal farmers in India has a range of
products, including weeders, tillers, and transplanters.
The
company currently has a capacity to manufacture 7,800 units, which would be
scaled up to 22,000 by 2015-16, by which time it's targeting annual sales
turnover of $ 50 million.
"One
of India's great challenges in the next 50 years will be a transformation in
the efficiency of its agriculture sector to support the growth of urban
development, as the global economy opens up for the Indian entrepreneur",
Briggs and Stratton's Managing Director (Europe, the Middle East and African
region) Roger Jann told reporters here.
"India
will need more food but with significantly less manual labour and more
productivity", he said.
Jann
said the company is looking at inorganic growth in India as well, eyeing
acquisition of small and mid-sized companies making agriculture and
construction equipment and generators.
It
also hoped to manufacture diesel engines in India within a year.
