Kolkata

For many years, he was the chief financial officer of one of the world’s leading makers of quality cable. When he retired, Dr. Roland Kern became a member of the supervisory board of the Lapp Holding of Stuttgart. As its deputy chair, the Neckartailfinger recently accompanied the German Film Orchestra Babelsberg on the launch of its India tour.

As a loyal reader of our newspaper for many decades, Roland Kern even cut out the article about the launch of our series “Presently in Kolkata” and the blog of the same name. “That really interested me!” He never imagined that the writer himself might cross his path in the auditorium of Science City.

“India rather than China – we’ve never regretted this decision.”
Dr. Roland Kern, supervisory board, Lapp Group

Dr. Roland Kern has now been part of the team of the Lapp Group for 35 years. The native of Stuttgart has lived in Neckartailfingen the same length of time. “We really like it there. We’ve made a lot of friends,” he beams at the sidelines of the reception following the highly praised concert in which the ensemble from Germany celebrated works by the Oscar-winning Indian composer A. R. Rahman (“Slumdog Millionaire”). And since they widened the B27 highway, it is a lot easier for him to reach the company’s headquarters in the Stuttgart neighbourhood of Vaihingen.

He himself considers the Lapp Group a “large medium-sized company” (which, by the way, is still a purely family business). About 3,000 people work there and worldwide at approximately 50 production facilities. “Everywhere that electricity is needed,” Lapp offers solutions around the globe, “for medium voltage up to 1,000 volts, we are right there.”

In India, as well, by the way: “It is one of our most important markets,” the Neckartailfinger tells me. The decision to go to Asia was made 15 years ago and India was chosen rather than China as the springboard. It was a strategy that proved successful. “We’ve never regretted it.”

India is a democracy, there are no language barriers (because all of their partners here speak English), and not least the functioning legal system is a major advantage. “There is no methodical stealing of patents like in China.” That is why they are presently building a second factory, after the first in Bangalore, in Bhopal, sadly famous for the most serious chemical disaster of all time in 1984. This will increase the number of employees in India from 250 to 350.

The automobile industry, with the here well-known firm Tata (which recently caused a sensation with the world’s least expensive car, the Tata Nano) is among the clients on the subcontinent as well as mechanical engineering firms, breweries and the chemical industry. Experts for traffic engineering and medical technology also are among Lapp’s buyers, and not least companies turning to the regenerative energies. They are becoming increasingly important in India, as the huge country has none of its own oil deposits and must import everything. “Solar and in particular wind power are booming here.”

Lapp generates turnover of 850 million euro annually around the world and 25 million of that in India. “It will certainly be more with the new factory,” Roland Kern is convinced. India may not be as dynamic as China right now, but that is not necessarily a disadvantage. “For that it is going up constantly and evenly – in recent years the figures always rise by two digits.”

That is why the company is also committed to this country at another level. Andreas Lapp, the co-owner and speaker of the board, is the honorary consul in the Republic of India for the German states of Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate. He has also firmly anchored Stuttgart’s wine village very successfully in Mumbai, the partner city of the Swabian metropolis. He also established the festival “Bollywood and Beyond” on the Neckar (in addition to many other activities) where people can experience all kinds of Indian films – from documentaries to romantic musicals - for a whole week every July.