Greaves in pact with Italian firm

MUMBAI, JUNE 18. Greaves, the Rs. 700 crore engineering arm of Thapar group, has entered into a technical collaboration with Italian construction equipment giant Cifa spa for manufacturing equipment for ready mix concrete (RMC) construction.

Greaves, which had tied-up with Cifa last year as a sole marketer and distributor of the latter's RMC equipment in the country, would invest Rs. 10 crore for upgrading its existing heavy engineering unit at Gummidipoondi near Chennai for rolling out the construction apparatus.

``Our technical alliance with Cifa is part of a broader strategy to leverage our core competence in growth areas like construction equipment for highways, dams and bridges'', Mr. Praveen Sachdev, managing director and CEO, Greaves told PTI.

The capital expenditure of Rs. 10 crores would be funded through internal accruals and manufacture of the equipment would begin next year, he said and added that for the time being the construction units from Italy were being assembled at Greaves' plant at Gummidipoondi.

``In the current fiscal year alone we will assemble and sell about 200 transit mixers, 50 truck mounted concrete pumps and 12 batching plants using the Italian technology'', Mr. Sachdev pointed out adding, value-wise the turnover would amount to around Rs. 50 crores.

Meanwhile, Greaves, in a bid to become `trim, lean, performing machine' is to shortly appoint global consulting firm Pricewaterhouse Coopers (Pwc) to suggest ways to reinforce its strengths, cut fixed costs, enhance production efficiency and hence increase returns on investments. PWC would submit its report in three to four months time after which Greaves would embark on a comprehensive exercise for restructuring its operations, Mr. Sachdev said.

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Section  : Business
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