Swiss multinational elevator and escalator manufacturer Schindler’s CEO Silvio Napoli has stated that the company’s workforce in India will “sooner or later” be equivalent to that in China, as the company continues to expand in the Indian market.
Napoli told Reuters that Schindler first entered India in 1998 and currently has around 6,000 employees in the country, with plans to eventually employ around 10,000 people, matching the number of employees in China.
As Schindler experiences rapid growth in India, the country is in the midst of a significant urbanization drive, while neighboring China is facing a serious real estate crisis.
According to Schindler’s second-quarter financial report released last Friday, the company’s new installations in China have decreased by 5% to 10%, while they continue to grow in India.
Napoli stated, “Our strategy has always been: wherever there is enough scale, we build, install, and maintain there.”
He mentioned that apart from the three existing training centers in India, the company “may need to establish more training centers in India.” He predicted that the Indian market will continue to grow.
He believes that, “Considering India has a population close to that of China, but the market size in India is only about one-sixth or one-seventh of China’s, indicating the huge potential of the Indian market.”
According to a BBC report on May 29 last year, based on United Nations data, India has just surpassed China to become the country with the world’s largest population. Currently, India is witnessing the birth of 86,000 babies each day, while China is at 49,400. With a declining birth rate, China’s population is expected to drop below 1 billion by the end of this century. The UN points out that the population in India will continue to grow until 2064, from the current 1.4 billion to 1.7 billion in 2064, allowing India to benefit from a “demographic dividend” – rapid economic growth as the working-age population expands.
Schindler Group was founded in Switzerland in 1874 and is one of the world’s leading elevator and escalator manufacturers, with over 1,000 branches and over 70,000 employees in more than 100 countries and regions worldwide, along with manufacturing facilities in 8 countries and global research centers.
A UN report indicates that by mid-2023, the population of India will surpass that of China.
(Adapted from a Reuters report)