The mushrooming of malls, high-end homes/offices and airports all over Indian metros in the last few years has seen a surge in demand for high-end products such as elevators, escalators and travelators. A direct beneficiary of this boom has been Kinetic Hyundai Elevator & Movement Technologies Ltd. (KHEMT), which is a 60:40 joint venture between Kinetic Group of Pune and Hyundai Elevator Company of Korea (HELCO). Its product range includes elevators, escalators, travelators and automated car parking systems and the company has so far sold more than 2,000 units.
The joint venture partners' association extends for almost a decade when Kinetic was importing the products from HELCO and selling them here. However, last year, the two companies came together to formalise their partnership through the formation of a joint venture.
The joint venture company makes automated car parking systems at a facility in Chinchwad near Pune where the investment has been Rs.20 crore.
Manish Motwani, Managing Director, KHEMT, said, “We are a premium brand and in elevators we cater to high to mid rise, high speed segment. In the automated car parking systems, we are the pioneers and have introduced these systems in the Indian market. For the elevators and escalators most of our requirements are catered to from Hyundai's China and Korea factories. But as the market is growing, we are exploring the possibility of setting up a new unit in the near future for elevators and escalators.”
In a market populated by other multinational giants like Otis, Schindler and Mitsubishi, the company already has a share of 10 per cent in escalators and elevators and aims to double this in the next three years.
“We have sold around 800 units in a market of around 10,000-12,000. So, over three years, we plan to sell at least to 2,500 units. Next in line are solutions for robotised material handling from Hyundai, which are applicable for airports and factories, and will soon be introduced in the Indian market.
Also, the joint venture will bring in platform screen doors (PSD) which are used in metro trains. We bid unsuccessfully to supply PSDs for the New Delhi and Mumbai metro projects and will certainly bid when tenders open for other metro projects,” said Mr. Motwani.
The company's costs are low considering that most products are procured from Hyundai which does its own R&D and product development.
The joint venture has established a network across 15 States covering 23 locations. “Right now, we are focussed on establishing relationships with corporate clients and focusing on volumes with quality,” said Mr. Motwani.”
