Saint-Gobain to expand India business with acquisitions investment

Davos, Jan 23 (PTI) Betting big on India, French construction materials major Sait-Gobain is planning to expand its operations in India significantly through acquisitions and capital investments, its global CEO Benoit Bazin has said.
    In an interview with PTI here during the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting, Bazin said Saint-Gobain, as a world leader in light and sustainable construction, sees a huge growth potential in India, given its growing population and expanding urbanisation.
    "Nearly 70 per cent of sustainable buildings in India have been built with Saint-Gobain materials. We are already doing business worth 2 billion euros annually in India, and we are doubling it every five years, and we keep investing there," he said.
    Bazin said the group has 82 plants in the country, and soon, it will cross 100. All its plants are run by Indian managers, and India CEO, Sreedhar N, also takes care of the entire Asia Pacific region.
    The group has more than 400 researchers in Chennai and close to 2,000 IT developers, he added.
    "India is producing more and more innovation for us, for India and for the rest of the world. India's importance for us is not limited to the market, but also for R&D and IT, so we are confident of continuing to invest in India in the future," Bazin said.
    "We also have a lot of Indian managers outside of Asia, including in France and Australia. So, we export a lot of Indian talent around the world of Saint-Gobain.
    "We are convinced that the next decade will be a decade of success for India, for the economy, for the growth in construction, but also in terms of geopolitical standpoint, India is in a very good spot with the support of the demography.
    "So I'm very confident that the future of India as a country and of the success of Saint-Gobain in India," he said.
    "We have 82 plants in India, and more than 95 per cent of what we sell in India is made in India. We also use India as a source to export to Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Australia."
    "We will continue to add sites, and it could be through capex and acquisitions. It will be a combination of organic growth and inorganic growth. I'm sure that we'll cross the number of 100 sites in India quite soon," he noted.
    With exports, we can further accelerate our growth in India, he said.
    Its Indian business has been seeing nearly 10 per cent volume growth every year in the last 5-10 years, and it will continue, he added.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)