Monday, February 28 2005 18:46 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

London: The 640 million pounds London-based Company Caparo is very bullish about India, which is changing very fast and has started enjoying globalisation and its benefits, Chairman of the group Lord Swraj Paul said today (Feb 28, 2005).

"At the moment, we are very bullish about India, which is changing very fast and has started enjoying globalisation and the benefits from it. Just to give you an idea, our turnover in India will go up from 20 million pounds to 140 million pounds in three years," Lord Paul said while addressing students of the University of Surrey as a visiting Professor.

"Today, Caparo is a conglomerate of small and medium-sized businesses with a total sales of 640 million pounds (about Rs 5,250 crores) employing some 4,500 people in Europe, North America and India.

"And we continue to expand. We are in the process of building a new production facility at Phoenix, Arizona, which opens in June this year. While in India we are adding another six automotive component manufacturing plants to our existing facilities," the NRI industrialist said.

Expansion of Caparo's operations in India include new automobile spare parts manufacturing plants in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Haryana.

The group is setting up the new plants at Chipanki (Rajasthan), Bawal (Haryana) Greater Noida (UP) and at Indore (MP) where it already has a similar manufacturing unit.

The automotive parts will be supplied to leading automobile manufacturers such as General Motors and Eicher, besides Maruti.

Lord Paul, who is also British Ambassador for Overseas Business, dealt at length on the progress made by his company since its inception in the late 1960s with the sales motto: "The right product with the right quality at the right time."

He told the budding entrepreneurs, "If customers get the attention they need when times are difficult, they will stay with you when your own times are difficult!"

He said, "Progress does not just mean increasing profits, it also means building an organisation that is better than its competition, and building people who perform better than anyone else in that industry.

"We want all our managers to contribute to growth because expansion is the oxygen of business, to stand still is to fall behind. All this requires a lot of effort. There is really no magic formula. The secret is work, work, work. Never forget that business is about people. It is the most contact-driven economic activity in which human beings engage."

He said human relations should not be confused with public relations.

"Customers, suppliers, workers, and investors will ultimately judge you by your sincerity rather than your affability! In business life, there are ups and downs, and not every outcome is perfect. But there are few vocations that give as much opportunity for creativity, and as good a living, as a business career."