3M India eyeing $200 million topline for its transportation & electronics biz this year

Maker of Scotch-Brite and Post-it notes - 3M India - is eyeing a 17-20% growth in its Transportation and Electronic Business Group this year, Executive Director of the segment Pawan Singh told DH in an exclusive interaction. “We will be touching close to $200 million,” he added.

Talking about investments, Singh said that the company’s focus remains on the electronics segment, with strategic areas involving 5G infrastructure, data centres, electric vehicles and augmented reality & virtual reality.

The company is also banking on the infrastructure sector for its growth in the decade to come. “Infrastructure development is one area which is picking up and is really high on the government's agenda, and which is actually very dear to us as well,” he noted.

Speaking on the manufacturing landscape in India, he said it’ll be 2-3 years before the company realises significant benefits from government efforts such as ‘Make in India’, production-linked incentives and global policies such as the ‘China Plus One’ strategy. “The manufacturing ecosystem is not developing at a pace fast enough,” he stressed. While businesses are shifting their operations from China to India, what is probably happening is assembling, not actual manufacturing, he elaborated.

3M India currently runs three manufacturing facilities across India - Bengaluru in Karnataka, Ranjangaon in Pune and Ahmedabad in Gujarat.

Elaborating on supply chain issues that hurt industries globally during the Covid-19 pandemic, Singh affirmed that a majority of the issues have been resolved. He, however, confessed to company-specific issues that remain.

Though the India arm of 3M contributes a meagre percentage to the overall topline of the global conglomerate, India continues to be the fastest growing market amongst major economies, he noted. “The percentage of the total production in India is small, but like anything else that is also growing, and, in times to come, there are probably going to be plans to even ramp that up,” he added.

3M India, which continues to import considerable raw material and finished goods from across the globe, sees currency conversion as a major challenge. “Because the customer may not be aware, we have to balance how much we are going to be passing on, but that's a real cost to us,” he highlighted.