Bonfiglioli, a leading global player in the power transmission and control segment, is upbeat about its growth in India, and has committed additional investments in its operations in the country.

Addressing media persons, Ms Sonia Bonfiglioli, President and CEO of the company, said Bonfiglioli had commissioned its second manufacturing plant in the country in Chennai (at Mannur, Sriperumpudur District) buoyed by satisfactory progress, and added that further investments would be made.

Elaborating, Mr M Ganesh, Director & CEO, Bonfiglioli Transmissions, the Indian subsidiary, said Rs 60 crore had so far been invested in the second plant and an additional Rs 40 crore has been earmarked for future investements, which would mainly be in areas such as setting up of new generation of plant and machinery. The current total investment of Bonfiglioli India is around Rs.500 crore.

Further, Ms Sonia said the second plant would be dedicated exclusively to R&D and manufacture of gearboxes for applications in the industrial sector whereas the first one (also in Chennai) would henceforth concentrate on developing products for the wind energy and Photovoltaic energy markets. Bonfiglioli India has so far manufactured and "sold" over 2.2 million gearboxes and gear motors (with 80 % local content) from its Chennai plant, which was set up in the year 2000.

Apart from designing, manufacturing, and distributing gear motors, drive systems and planetary gearboxes, Bonfiglioli offers solutions for mobile and earth moving machinery, and wind and photovoltaic energy markets. The company today is a consolidated group with 16 directly controlled subsidiaries, 10 production plants, more than 3,000 employees, and a sales network in 80 countries.