Swiss road-construction equipment maker Ammann Group Holdings AG is positioning its India operations as a global manufacturing hub, group chief executive Hans-Christian Schneider told Mint in an interview. The company is looking to increasingly use its Gujarat facility to supply products to markets beyond India, including potentially the highly competitive US market, he added.
The strategy marks a shift from viewing India primarily as a large and growing market to treating it as an important manufacturing base for Ammann’s global operations. India is already a significant manufacturing location for the company, which recorded global revenue of $800 million in 2025, said Schneider, adding that the group has invested heavily in building capacity and quality systems to support exports to advanced markets.
“We are currently growing heavily in exports,” Schneider said. “If you can export more, that’s always great for India as a whole.”
Two key requirements
Schneider, the sixth-generation leader of the 157-year-old family-run business, outlined two key requirements for turning India into a global manufacturing hub: localizing products for the markets being served, and raising quality standards across products, processes and customer service.
Ammann already has products manufactured in India that are exported to Europe, Schneider said, although European exports do not yet make up the bulk of local production. Exports generate 20-25% of the Indian entity’s annual revenue, and the company is also looking at using India to serve other emerging markets, where a competitive manufacturing cost base is important.
Schneider said the US could eventually emerge as another key export destination. Ammann doesn’t currently export products from India to the US, he said, but added that he sees no fundamental reason why it cannot do so. Products manufactured at Ammann’s European plants are already configured for both European and North American markets, making it possible to replicate that approach in India, he said.
“If we bring one of those platforms to India, the likelihood that we would certify it also for North America is high,” Schneider said. “The specs themselves are very similar.”
Tackling certification gaps
The company, however, needs to navigate differences in certification and industrial standards before exports can be scaled up. Schneider said Indian and European standards are broadly comparable in functionality, but differences in areas such as safety requirements still require additional certification work.
He said greater mutual recognition of industrial standards would help India’s manufacturers expand exports, particularly following trade agreements. “The India-EFTA Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement (TEPA) has definitely helped in bringing more investment into India. But the next step has to be towards product standards, which are currently different for India and for other countries. Product standards on safety, for instance, have different requirements here in India and in Europe,” he said.
The India-EFTA TEPA, which took effect in late 2025, includes a $100-billion investment commitment over 15 years to create one million direct jobs in India, alongside broader market access for Indian exports across Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein.
Exports offset domestic moderation
The expansion of exports has helped Ammann offset a moderation in India’s construction-equipment market over the past two to three years. Schneider said domestic growth has been weaker than during the earlier boom but remains ahead of mature European markets.
According to data from the Indian Construction Equipment Manufacturers’ Association (ICEMA), a lobby group, India’s construction equipment sales saw moderate 2.7% growth to 126,961 units in FY25 from the previous fiscal, while exports grew by 10% to 13,230 units over the same period.
The company is particularly exposed to road infrastructure because a substantial portion of its product portfolio is linked to asphalt production and road construction, Schneider said. Ammann is therefore watching government infrastructure spending closely, while also expanding products for rural roads and other applications.
Schneider said geopolitical disruptions, including the West Asia conflict, affected construction activity in some emerging markets through higher fuel and bitumen prices. Ammann saw a slowdown after the first quarter of 2026, he said, although activity in West Asia has subsequently stabilised.
The company is simultaneously betting on technologies that could reduce its dependence on virgin raw materials and energy. Schneider said Ammann is seeing growing demand in India for asphalt plants capable of recycling up to 60% reclaimed asphalt, while its European operations are already deploying systems capable of 100% recycling. The company also maintains construction equipment running on electric powertrains in its India portfolio.
Scaling Indian operations
Ammann entered India through its acquisition of road construction equipment maker Apollo Construction Equipment Ltd, in which it initially acquired a 70% stake before assuming full control. It later expanded the manufacturing facility in Gujarat, which Schneider said was designed with substantially more capacity than the company initially needed. The company currently has about 1,000 direct employees in India, with another 700-plus people employed through contract and other arrangements, he said.
Ammann Group Holdings AG brought in around $800 million of revenue in 2025, the CEO said, while the Indian arm clocked revenue of around ₹1,100 crore (about $115 million at current rates) in FY26. Ammann India sold around 1,200 units of construction equipment in FY26, he said.
The Indian entity’s strategy is also being supported by continued investment in research and development (R&D), Schneider said, with the company having built local R&D capabilities across product ranges. Greater global R&D responsibility could gradually shift to India as its engineering capabilities deepen, he added. “There is a lot of talent here,” Schneider said, adding that India could eventually take on a larger role in developing products for global markets.
Schneider said the existing facility in Gujarat still has scope to expand output through layout optimisation and removal of bottlenecks. However, he expects the company to reassess its manufacturing footprint around 2030.
Ammann could eventually establish production facilities closer to major markets within India, rather than simply expanding the size of its existing Gujarat operation in Mehsana, Schneider said. Regional warehouses and vendor bases in locations such as Kolkata and Chennai are already helping the company reduce logistics requirements, he said.