Wipro Infrastructure Engineering Gears Up For Next Leap, Looks For Inorganic Growth

In just Additive Manufacturing, which happens to be one of its five major areas of focus, the company has not only added some 7 to 8 new customers in India over the past six months, but is also actively looking at foraying into markets outside India.

Wipro Infrastructure Engineering, in just four years since Wipro began building it, seems to be gearing up for the next leap ahead. Consider this: In just Additive Manufacturing, which happens to be one of its five major areas of focus – the others being hydraulics, water treatment, aerospace, automation solutions – the company has not only added some 7 to 8 new customers in India over the past six months, taking the total number to 25, but is also actively looking at foraying into markets outside India.

Speaking to Business Today, Pratik Kumar, CEO, Wipro Infrastructure Engineering says: In additive manufacturing, we have expanded our customer footprint in India and feel it is time for us to also look beyond India and get a foothold in some of the more prominent markets in additive manufacturing such as Europe and the US.

Elaborating on the options, he says, “We are planning to build our sales presence as well as make a foray into Europe or US markets, using the inorganic growth route. Even if these are not large scale companies, considering this to be an emerging area, we are hopeful that in the next nine to 12 months, we should be able to get into overseas markets as well”. Explaining why it makes sense to seek a foothold outside India, he says, “because there is a larger market out there and it is more mature.” There is apparently a lot for all players along the value chain – be it the manufacturers or service providers like Wipro Infrastructure.

Foray Into Industrial Automation Solutions

What also seems to be exciting people at Wipro Infrastructure is its new baby – its latest foray into industrial automation. In just six months into the business, it is taking serious strides. G Sundararaman, company’s senior vice president and head, automation solutions says, the automation solutions space is highly fragmented with niche solution providers and there are few reputed, organised corporate players offering an integrated suite of offerings in the automation space, which is a good reason Wipro wants to make a dent here. Ask the goal-oriented Pratik Kumar on the target here and he says, “We want to emerge as one among the top players in the next three years.” On the key attraction at the moment for it in India, he says, is the fact that productivity is still low in the country and labour costs are constantly going up.

The company is building a partnership ecosystem for automation products with automation product companies like Mitsubishi and others. And then, as this space requires, follow it up by binding the products to an ecosystem and to deliver the overall solution. The end goal being apparently to help industry improve efficiency, productivity and ensure cost reduction. It is looking to include some players from the pharmaceutical sector, auto and auto- ancillary players apart from the FMCG space. In just about six months, efforts have gone into putting in place a core team, bringing experts from the industry, establishing the partnership eco-system. It has already announced one with Mitsubishi but apparently is in dialogue with others though Pratik Kumar would not name anyone. Plus, it has been holding multiple pilots for several organisations. To get an early head start here, Kumar says, the company is open to the idea of taking the inorganic growth route.

Wipro Infrastructure, which has targets to attain half a billion dollar business in a year from now, is perhaps a company to watch from the Wipro fold. – Business Today