Thermo Electron Corporation, a world leader in analytical instruments and the largest laboratory equipment manufacturer, has set up a modern Demonstration and Application Centre at its new headquarters at Hiranandani Business Park, Mumbai and plans to set up a large similar facility in India within three years with an investment of $ 3-4 million.

Talking to Pharmabiz on the sidelines of the function to kick-start the new facility, Dr. Marijin Dekkers, worldwide president and CEO of Thermo Electron said that the company has plans to set up another large Demonstration and Application Centre in India and to increase the number of employees from the current 115 to 300 within the next three years.

“At present, we have started direct operations in India and substantially increased our workforce to 115 by now and hope an increase in revenues by 25-30%. The second centre in India will be located at a suitable location other than Mumbai to help our customers in different parts of India,” said Dr. Marijin Dekkers.

Currently, the $ 2.7 billion Thermo, which has 65 facilities worldwide, is not planning to set up a manufacturing base in India. However, Thermo may seriously look at the Indian facilities in Pune and Mumbai to develop various software tools and to support in-house R&D efforts.

Dr. Dekkers noted that India has the second largest pool of scientists in the world and this was the main reason for Thermo to increase its activities in India. Analytical equipment market in the country is estimated to the tune of $ 400 million out of a $ 25 billion global market. Thermo’s revenues from India are only 1.5% of its turnover; instead China contributes about 5.5%. India is ranked 11th in the list of leading analytical equipment markets, led by US, China, Germany, Japan etc. A few years ago, the Chinese stood sixth in the list and now enjoy the second position. When compared to India, which has many upcoming life sciences companies, China has the strength in various manufacturing segments, noted Marijin Dekkers.

Thermo opened a new customer service and demonstration laboratory centre in Shanghai, a few weeks ago. It also opened a new manufacturing centre of excellence and opened commercial offices at 7 cities in China. Thermo looks forward to start similar centres in growing markets like Russia, Chile and Venezuela within one or two years.

According to Dr. G Ramakrishnan, director, Asia Business Development, scientific instrument division, the new demonstration centre would provide full operational training for customers and a chance to analyse samples before purchase decisions. Major instruments to be made available at the centre includes Thermo’s Ion Trap and Triple Quadrupole mass spectrometers, Haereus, Jouan and IEC centrifuges, incubators and microplate instruments along with a few instruments from the measurement and control sector which addresses the analytical needs of pharma, biotech, clinical research and environmental industries.