Atrie to expand in India

Sathya Mithra

BANGALORE: Atrie Technology, the Indian arm of the Taiwanese data communication equipment manufacturing company, will be setting up a fully automated manufacturing unit in Pondicherry.

The manufacturing set up will be augmented by an assembly line, which will employ close to 60 people. The company said that it had narrowed down possible locations for the assembly unit to two places — Bangalore and Pondicherry. It will finalize on the location for the assembly arm by August 15.

According to the company, both units will begin the first phase of manufacturing sometime around the end of October 2003. “The manufacturing and assembly units are being set up to cater to local requirements since there is a good amount of customization that our product line has to go through for India. Products manufactured here will be exported to SAARC countries and the Middle East regions as well,” said Atrie Technology India MD and CEO Ravichandran.

“Our aim is to make Atrie the number one brand for our product line in APAC and the third globally, both in revenues as well as market share by the end of this fiscal. And India will work in co-ordination with our set ups elsewhere in the world to achieve this,” said Ravichandran.

Atrie, whose products include Ethernet switches, routers and fiber optic multiplexers, has a good foothold in the leased line modem space in India with a customer base dominated by the telecom and banking sectors. The company, which registered revenues of Rs 18 crore in 2002-03, plans to increase it by around 200 percent and bring in topline revenues of Rs 52 crore at the end of the current fiscal. The company also said that it would be looking to establish 50 percent market share in both the 64K and E1 leased line modems in 2003-04.

“China is the biggest contributor to Atrie’s global activities bringing in 40 percent of the global business. India contributes to less than 10 percent of the same at the moment, but it shows promise with consumption and deployment of leased lines growing every year,” said Ravichandran

Atrie Technology, which began operations in 1989, works world over through partners for distribution and systems integration. The company has been in India since 2000 and employs around 27 people in sales and support activities while continuing to work through partners including Wipro and CMC. The Indian manufacturing set up will be the sixth one for the company, which has units in both China and Taiwan.

(CNS)