Leading supplier of cables, wires and accessories, LAPP India, has come a long way from being an INR 600 crore company in 2019 to an estimated INR 2,700 crore one-stop technology solutions provider in 2027. This information was shared by LAPP Group CEO Mr. Matthias LAPP in an interaction with Wire & Cable India during the launch of LAPP Group’s first-ever Compounding Plant and E-Beam Facility in Bhopal. Let’s hear it straight from the horse’s mouth.
Wire & Cable India: Please share your journey after becoming the Chairman of the Executive Board of LAPP Group on October 1, 2022.
Matthias LAPP: It was an interesting journey. I became the Chairman of LAPP during the Covid-19 pandemic. It was a tough time and we braved the crisis. I’m very proud of my team because everybody managed it pretty well.
The customers were asking when would they get their product? We had no idea how to deliver the product because there were challenges with regard to the procurement of raw material and also in smooth running of the factory. This situation across the industries the world over led to a race, which meant that whosoever was able to deliver, would win the race.
We are currently into the biggest investment program that ever took place in the history of LAPP Group. We are making global investments worth several hundred million Euros in warehouses, factories, and in innovation. The program has been going on for the last two years and is ongoing.
We just upgraded and updated our biggest logistics hub, the central hub at Stuttgart in Germany with an investment of a high ten digit million Euros amount. The updating of this single logistics center will take four years to finish.
During the pandemic, everything became digitalised. People started working from home. Digitalization and artificial intelligence became the need of the hour. Just to give an example, the installation of E-beam here in India was done by augmented reality since the experts were not able to travel during the pandemic.
In today’s fast-changing market environment, the customers are full of bright new ideas and to meet their expectations, we need to be more efficient, effective, and digitally updated. In order to remain up to the mark, we are reshaping our global IT department in a big way.
WCI: Please share your vision for LAPP Group.
ML: As CEO of the LAPP Group, I think there’s a need to regularly review our strategy and change it accordingly. We need to look at our structure and see how we can do things in a better way.
“Reliability is very crucial to establishing a connection between people. We are here to make a reliable connection.”
I think it is very important to understand that we all depend on each other and if we work together with our colleagues, collaborate with them and understand the process, then we can become very successful.
To accentuate on our vision, I would like to say that LAPP wants to be the connectivity solutions provider for the industry. Reliability is very crucial to establishing a connection between people. We are here to make a reliable connection. This is our goal, and for the next generation as well, to take LAPP to that level. Whenever somebody needs to establish a connection, LAPP should be the first name that should come to their mind. Even if the customer is having a problem with his machine or solar panel on his roof, he should think of LAPP for a solution.
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WCI: You are among the very few foreign companies, which were able to make a niche for themselves in the Indian cable industry. Please share the reasons for your success.
ML: I think one of the major reasons for our success in India is consistency. You cannot do a fast deal overnight. Our shareholders in the company got to know India, understand its culture and understand how to do business here. This is something which has remained important to us since day one. I think the senior leadership of many other multinationals usually fly in, look around and be gone. They don’t understand the market. By understanding India, we were able to grow our company and establish ourselves here. We had trust in this country and were always committed to invest in India, which turned out to be a good decision.
Another important factor was that we started very early in India, going by the old cliche ‘Think Global, Act Local’. A major chunk of what we sell in India is designed by our LAPP India team, keeping in mind the needs of the Indian market. This has been our philosophy for years. It allows us to have a dedicated portfolio of products. For example, we have customized our classic product ÖLFLEX®, as per the Indian market and the Indian norms.
We have dedicated teams, who visit the customers, identify their problems and issues, and solve them in time. This is one of the attributes to our success in India.
WCI: Please tell us about your Indian manufacturing set-up and product portfolio. Kindly give details about the industries also, where your products find their applications.
ML: We have two facilities in India for manufacturing of cables. The first one was set up in 1996 at Jigani in Bangalore and the second was established in Pilukhedi near Bhopal in 2012. Today, we have the full range of capabilities in terms of instrumentation, control, data and power cable. LAPP India is the leader in cable and connection technology, which provides fieldbus technology, optical transmission systems, industrial connectors, glands, conduits, cable markers, tools, and accessories. By 2027, we are looking to triple our service points in the Indian market.
The 40,000 products in our global catalog reflect our manufacturing prowess. LAPP products are used in production machinery, industrial robots, public transport, food processing, alternative energy, charging systems for electric vehicles, oil drilling platforms and many more.
With the installation of E-beam, we can now extend the range of products to the newer segments coming to play in India, such as semiconductor, e-mobility, rail infrastructure, ship-wiring, nuclear plants, defense, solar power, aerospace, automotive and medical sectors etc.
In terms of moving from pure component to solution supply, we also have five harnessing facilities around India at Coimbatore, Bangalore, Pune, Dharuhera and Vadodara, where we offer solutions to the customer, regarding plug and play solutions.
We continue to extend those ranges with investments each year to be able to penetrate new markets and compete more effectively against other companies. We are proud that we are the largest multinational cable manufacturer in India. We compete very closely with local manufacturers. It goes back to the earlier philosophy that we are a global company but within India, we have to brave strong competition from local manufacturers. More than 60 percent of the products that we sell in India have been designed for the Indian market as per the Indian specifications.
“We had trust in this country and were always committed to invest in India, which turned out to be a good decision.”
WCI: Please share details about the expansion at your Bhopal plant and financial performance of LAPP India.
ML: These are exciting times for LAPP India. We have inaugurated our first-ever compounding plant within the entire LAPP Group and the E-beam facility. These are two of our major growth milestones in India.
Since its inception, the Bhopal plant has witnessed a magnificent journey. It began with single-core production, steadily expanded to multi-core and solar cables, and now boasts a compounding plant for specialized cable manufacturing. This remarkable progress reflects LAPP India’s dedication to continuous improvement and serving the evolving needs of the Indian market.
The state-of-the-art facility Compounding Plant, sprawling across 36,000 square feet, signifies a monumental leap towards backward integration and self-reliance. The plant additionally houses a revolutionary E-beam charger, directly addressing the surging demand for high-performance cables in crucial sectors like railways (ensuring reliable operations), metros (supporting sustainable urban transportation), renewable energy (providing durable cables for clean energy projects), and e-mobility charging (enabling next-generation charging infrastructure).
From 1996 to 2024, our growth in India has been incredible. In 2019, we were an INR 600 crore company. This year, we plan to become an INR 1200 crore company. We have doubled in the last four years. We will double again in the next four years. By 2027, our ambition is to become a company that exceeds INR 2,700 crore.
WCI: What is the USP of LAPP Group, which sets it apart from other companies?
ML: I think the key point we bring is the value proposition that we offer. We are a German company, which lays an extreme focus on quality. We get repeated orders from our customers because of the value our customers get from us. For us as a company, not meeting the standards is non-negotiable. It’s very important to be competitive in the market, but at the same time, we will never compromise our drive for quality against cost.
Today, LAPP brands are some of the best-known in the cable technology field and have earned an outstanding reputation as a premium brand. All over the world, we stand for the values which we and our customers consider paramount – quality, precision, and reliability.
“All over the world, we stand for the values which we and our customers consider paramount – quality, precision, and reliability.”
WCI: LAPP is known for its expertise in product innovation. Please elaborate on your research & development.
ML: Innovation is deeply rooted in LAPP’s DNA. It is one of our corporate values and helps us in finding the right connection solutions for our customers with regard to transmission of energy, signals or data in an industrial environment. For LAPP, developing innovation means understanding the customers, placing them at the center of their service offer, and finding new & better products and service solutions for their requirements over and over again. When it comes to innovative solutions, we want to be a trustworthy partner for our customers in the field of connection technology.
We identify gaps in our portfolio and take up either one or two things as a project with our R&D team. They then continue further development on the same for the next 5-10 years. This has evolved as a very useful resource for our global R&D team. We have hired a new Global Chief Technology Officer (CTO), whose main focus is on R&D and product development.
We have the Eddie LAPP Award, an innovation award launched by my father Siegbert Lapp which fosters innovation within the company. It’s an annual award given to the best new idea. It doesn’t have to be a product idea, it could be a service, a solution, a process or a policy. It’s a highly-contested award throughout the LAPP Group, which boosts confidence within the team and also encourages the team members to create something new or innovative. It is a great development.
Ambidexterity is an exciting new concept, which can be defined as the ability of an organization to simultaneously promote efficient day-to-day business and innovative methods. It sets out where you need to be agile, operate & actively promote research, and where you are better to stick within the framework of your established processes. As per the principle of ambidexterity, the employees should also be involved in innovation processes as part of their day-to-day work, to develop and enhance internal expertise and stimulate constant advancement.
WCI: LAPP Group has earned quite a reputation for being one of the most sustainable companies across the globe. Please elaborate.
ML: Sustainable business is firmly anchored in the DNA of LAPP. We develop sustainable products before we are obliged to do so by laws or regulations, as an integral part of our corporate responsibility. We need to give back to the communities in which we operate.
Our focus is on sustainable, environmentally friendly management and responsible use of all natural resources. We make a sustainable contribution for the well-being of future generations and the preservation of our planet. We believe that as a company, we need to set a good example. For us, economic success is always linked to responsibility for our living environment and sustainability is a recognised criterion for all company decisions.
We develop sustainable products by using natural resources efficiently and ensuring environmentally friendly handling of chemicals and waste. We have developed a new product together with BASF. It is the first ethernet cable with a bio-based sheathing, which is based on corn and not on oil. We have also developed the world’s first lead-free cable glands, making it a sustainable and future-oriented product alternative in the standard range. LAPP has been purchasing 100 per cent green power in Germany since 2019, supplemented by its own photovoltaics and geothermal energy. We are one of the companies, which mostly buy green copper.
Our newly-launched compounding plant at Bhopal is currently certified as gold standard by the Indian Green Building Council. We will soon complete its rooftop solar installation, which will get us a platinum status.
WCI: What are your expectations for LAPP Group in India? How do you see LAPP India positioned 5 years down the lane?
ML: I want LAPP to be the connectivity solutions provider for the industry. I want to take LAPP to the level where anybody looking to establish a connection, should first think of LAPP in their mind. We are here to make a reliable connection.
