Zeiss Group Plans To Invest Rs 2,500 Crore On New Plant In India

Global optical lenses major Zeiss Group will invest about Rs 2,500 crore in India on a new plant at Karnataka, mainly to increase its spectacle glasses manufacturing capacity, according to a senior company official.

Carl Zeiss India, the group's arm in the country, expects to employ around 5,000 people when the new plant becomes fully-operational, as per a PTI report.

The company, which has completed 25 years of operations in India, is targeting to achieve a turnover of Rs 5,000 crore by 2027.
"One of the big things that is coming to the Indian market is the new factory that we have got approved, this is in partnership with Invest in Karnataka, stated the PTI report.

"We have procured 34 acres of land close to the (Bengaluru) airport and are in line to get another nine acres hopefully, with an investment of close to Rs 2,500 crore coming into this," Carl Zeiss India Director and CFO Shreyas Kumar told PTI in an interview.

The plant will employ close to about 800 people initially and will go up to 5,000 people when it reaches full capacity, he added.

"This will be Zeiss' largest spectacle lens manufacturing factory, but maybe even one of the world's largest generally," Kumar said.

According to a PTI report, Construction work on the plant is expected to start by the middle of this month, he said adding "we should be starting manufacturing at least on parallel lines by October 2024".

When asked about the production capacity of the new plant, he said, "So, currently the glass manufacturing which is the spectacle blanks, we are doing about 30,000 per day, that's the capacity we have. This will go up to about two lakhs per day."