By Kristy Inus, Bernama
Kuala Lumpur : India’s leading electrical switchgears and compact fluorescent lamps manufacturer, Indo Asian Fusegear Ltd, is keen to form a joint venture company in Malaysia and set up a plant here.
The Indian company is currently talking to a potential local partner which it has been collaborating with for the past seven years regarding the joint venture, says Indo Asian Fusegear Executive Director Vimal Mahendru.
He declined to name the local partner when met by Bernama recently but said that with the initiative, Indo Asian hoped to have all its interests in this country represented through one entity.
“Once the joint venture is set up, it will also import other products in the Indo Asian portfolio and distribute them in Malaysia. Hence the joint venture is likely to be the single face of Indo Asian in the Malaysian market,” he said.
Indo Asian has established a business link with Malaysia for the past 25 years and its products under the Indo Asian, Indo Cop and Hausmann brands are being distributed locally. It also supplies fuses, fuse cut-outs and feeder pillars to Malaysian national power utility Tenaga Nasional Berhad.
Mahendru said the joint venture would help Indo Asian set up a manufacturing facility in Malaysia. “The idea is to set up a plant where some components will come from India and some will be manufactured locally. Then, the final assembly, testing and packaging will be done here,” he said.
“With the plant, we can also produced the supplies for Tenaga Nasional locally,” he said, adding that the facility was expected to be ready by the year-end and would provide employment for 250 locals.
Indo Asian currently has nine manufacturing facilities.
On the investment for the plant, Mahendru said: “The cost of plant and equipment is being worked on. This will depend directly on the product range, which is being reviewed right now.”
Indo Asian was started in 1958, developing India’s first sheet steel enclosed rewirable switch. Since then, it has grown into a multi-product company, specializing in manufacturing a wide range of electrical products.
Its products reach customers through 10 company depots, 500 channel partners and more than 15,000 retail outlets. It currently has more than 3,000 employees worldwide.