‘Kinetic will remain in the engineering space’

In an interview with HT, Managing Director Sulajja Firodia Motwani said the Kinetic brand will make a comeback in the consumer space, only in a different field.

Once known for its Luna mopeds and gearless scooters, the Kinetic Group on Thursday branched out into a new business — infrastructure design — almost two years after it stopped making two-wheelers. In an interview with HT, Managing Director Sulajja Firodia Motwani said the Kinetic brand will make a comeback in the consumer space, only in a different field. Excerpts:

HT Image

Infrastructure is a completely new ball game for Kinetic...
Our road map for the Kinetic Group is such that we will remain in the automotive and engineering space and build on our automotive component base over the next five years. We will look at entering into new ventures and opportunities wherever there is a fit, and infrastructure is one of them.

Coming from a strictly automotive background, when and why did you choose this field?
The thought about doing something like this came to us when the Kinetic-Hyundai JV for making elevators and moving technologies happened in 2009. What we will be doing here is that, along with FGTecnopolo of Italy, we will provide infrastructure services and design, where the Italian firm has an expertise. Kinetic, with its relationships with Indian corporates, will provide the JV with the exposure. Our tie-up with Hyundai has given us some experience on infrastructure-related projects and have relationships with the likes of Reliance infrastructure and Ansals.

Any regrets about not being in the two-wheeler space?
I think Mahindra have established themselves well in scooters and announced their plans in motorcycles. That’s really what we want because we failed in the motorcycle segment ourself. The investment required for motorcycles is huge now.

Having been a prominent consumer-driven brand, the Kinetic tag still has a good brand recall. Any plans to leverage that?
The Kinetic brand has been on two-wheelers but it is an established Indian brand and it can be on finance (or) electrical appliances like a Godrej, and we are thinking of leveraging it on similar lines. There are certain products that will align well with the Kinetic ideology — products that are technology-driven and consumer-centric.