India is now at par with Schneider Electric’s France business: India MD Anil Chaudhry

MUMBAI: French-headquartered automation and energy solutions major Schneider Electric’s India operations is now as big as its business in the parent country after the acquisition of Larsen & Toubro’s electric and automation division and the company plans to scale it up with a push on exports, a top executive told ET.
As a part of its strategy to expand its presence in India, Schneider Electric announced a Rs 14,000 crore deal to acquire L&T’s E&A division. The acquisition was concluded in August and the global major is now working on a ‘100-day plan’ to merge the company. With the acquisition, India has become the third largest business for the group, at par with France, and behind US and China.

“We have a very strong team, which includes our innovation, research and development team which are working in India for India. We have a very strong supply chain meeting the needs of India. But the vision which we have is that we want to take ‘India for Globe,’ which will give the ecosystem of our suppliers our channel partners access to those markets through us,” Anil Chaudhry, country president and managing director of Schneider Electric in India told ET in an exclusive interview.

Chaudhry has also been appointed as the chief executive of Schneider Electric India Pvt Ltd, which is owned 65% by Schneider Electric and rest by global investment company Temasek, and will house the recently acquired business.

The ‘100-day plan’ will include the integration of over 5,000 employees from L&T’s E&A business which includes its overseas markets of Middle East and Africa, Indonesia and Malaysia, which will take the staff count in the country to 25,000.

“We have the mother brand of L&T which as part of our agreement we are allowed to use for five years. We are going ahead with two brand-sales strategy...there will be a lot of good practices on both sides which will be shared to make it more powerful,” he said.

Indian industry has been facing headwinds, which have been made worse due to the the disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. India’s economy contracted 23.9% in the June quarter, triggering concerns that it will slip deeper into recession. But despite the dull macro-economic environment, Schneider Electric places India at the core of its growth plans.

“Our strategy and commitment to India is not for a year or two, but for a long term. We have been here for 50 years and we believe in the growth potential of India; the country is on the path to play a bigger role in the world,” Chaudhry said.

He said that the pandemic has highlighted the need of digitization of the power sector and industry.