India a hyper-growth market, says Carrier executive Michael Gierges | People

“I call India a hyper-growth market, an accelerated growth market. We’ve been systematically growing double-digit growth in India on all fronts. And there is no exception in the next economic cycle, the next five years, that we will not continue to do so. We’re looking at multiplying our position in India and our business as we go forward; then we will do the appropriate investments that cope with that,” Michael Gierges, President, Climate Solutions Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa at Carrier, told Business Standard.

He added that it is working on expanding its manufacturing in the country and has been working with its supply chain, the micro, small and medium-sized businesses, to elevate production capacity and the ability and skill to serve the growing demand. Without giving much detail on its expansion, he said, “With the expansion plans that we have in mind, we’re looking at India as a manufacturing hub and not just as an R&D hub, to serve the surrounding markets… The Middle East is only a few hours away. There are a lot of countries that have free trade agreements with India, so we can export from India and deliver to those countries at zero tariff.”

“We’re looking at expanding that, and that’s why the expansion is paramount and important to our growth story in India. In the past chapter of our life, we were focused on delivering India for India and we want to expand India for the region’s story,” Gierges said.

While talking about its HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) business, he said that last year the company saw strong demand from retail. “Retail has been an incredible growth driver for our team last year, because all the new shops and malls that are opening are becoming a major driver in the economy,” Gierges said.

He also said that the company has been seeing demand from adjacent industries such as electronics, power racks and the IT industry, which are also major drivers for the company’s HVAC business, due to which it is witnessing strong demand in India.

Currently, 60 per cent of its HVAC business is manufactured locally and Gierges said that Carrier has been systematically investing, expanding its footprint and its industrial capacity in the country.