Benoit Bazin, Chairman and CEO, Saint-Gobain
In an interview with PTI here during the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, Bazin said that Saint-Gobain, as a global leader in light and sustainable construction, sees huge growth potential in India given its growing population and growing urbanization.
“Almost 70 percent of sustainable buildings in India are built with Saint-Gobain materials. We already do business worth €2 billion a year in India, doubling this every five years, and we continue to invest there,” he said.
Expansion of the production base
Bazin said the group has 82 factories in the country and will soon exceed 100. All factories are run by Indian managers, and the Indian CEO, Sreedhar N, is also responsible for the entire Asia-Pacific region.
The group has more than 400 researchers in Chennai and nearly 2,000 IT developers, he added.
Innovation from India
“India is producing more and more innovation for us, for India and for the rest of the world. India’s importance for us is not limited to the market, but also for R&D and IT, so we are confident that we can continue to invest in India in the future,” said Bazin.
“We also have a lot of Indian managers outside Asia, including in France and Australia, so we export a lot of Indian talent across the world from Saint-Gobain.
Ten years of opportunity
“We are confident that the next decade will be a decade of success for India, for the economy and for growth in the construction sector, but also in terms of a geopolitical point of view, India is in a very good place, supported by demography.
“So I am confident that the future of India as a country and Saint-Gobain’s success in India is good,” he said.
Made in India
“We have 82 factories in India and more than 95 percent of what we sell in India is made in India. We also use India as a source for exports to Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Australia.”
Investments and acquisitions
“We will continue to add locations, and that can be through capital investments and acquisitions. It will be a combination of organic growth and inorganic growth. I am confident that we will cross the 100 location mark in India quite quickly,” he noted.
With exports, we can further accelerate our growth in India, he said.
The Indian business has seen volume growth of almost 10 percent every year for the past five to 10 years and will continue to do so, he added.
Published on January 24, 2026
#SaintGobain #plans #major #expansion #India #capital #investments #acquisitions #exports