Schneider to invest €100 million in India in R&D and manufacturing.

As the global head of Schneider Jean-Pascal Tricoire spoke to the media, the €26.6-billion French company’s revenue in rupee terms moved from ₹140,000 crore to ₹200,000 crore within seven to eight minutes.

Anil Chaudhry, Country President and Managing Director of Global Operations, Schneider India, congratulated Tricoire with the “good news”.

For a French-headquartered company, depreciating rupee can be challenging, but with over 50 per cent of products manufactured in India getting exported, the firm says it tries to protect itself by producing and selling locally as much as possible.

On whether currency volatility impacts Schneider globally, Tricoire said, “We sell in 160 countries, but we have direct presence in 100 countries. We operate, by principle, in all of these countries in local currency.”

In the past decade, the movements of currencies have been incredibly important, he said, adding that “it is not only about India, it can be in Japan or Great Britain.”

While, on the one hand, Schneider procures material from different countries, it tries to be open in adopting the best technologies. In India, for example, it has a strong 1,500 people in R&D team and 28 factories.

HBL