Bangalore, June 11, 2008 (IANS)

British electronic components major Premier Farnell Plc Wednesday announced a Rs.250 million investment in India. The £745-million ($1.5 billion) Leeds-based company will use multi-channels such as field sales, contact centre web and knowledge centres to distribute a range of 430,000 products from 3,500 suppliers to about 100,000 small and medium enterprises in India. The cities where Farnell Electronics India Ltd will operate with Bangalore as headquarters are Ahmedabad, Chennai, Coimbatore, Hyderabad, Mumbai, New Delhi and Pune.

"Our Indian subsidiary is part of our international foray into emerging markets in Asia and eastern Europe," Farnell chief executive Harriet Green said here. "Besides China and eastern Europe, we see India as a major market for critical electronic components. With manufacturing of products and services for diverse verticals picking up rapidly, we are betting on Rs.1 billion sales from India over the next three years," Green said.

The 70-year-old British firm caters to sectors including utilities, healthcare, biotechnology, environment, petrochemicals, transportation and infrastructure. Of the total revenue generated in its March-February accounting year (2007-08), at least 50% came from western Europe, 25% from North America and the remaining from rest of the world, including Asia-Pacific, West Asia and Africa.

"Our gameplan is to become a premier multi-channel global electronics distributor for the design engineer in India," India director Ravi Pagar said. Farnell India will draw upon the parent company's global reach to ship the latest electronic, electrical and industrial and maintenance, repair and operations products to Indian manufacturers and end-users.