Crompton Greaves is an India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

n multinational engaged in design, manufacturing, and marketing of products related to power generation, transmission, and distribution based in Mumbai

Mumbai

Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...

. Its part of Avantha Group

Avantha Group

Avantha Group is a business conglomerate in India chaired by Gautam Thapar. The US$ 4 billion company is one of India’s largest business conglomerates...

.

History

Col. R.E.B. Crompton founded R.E.B. Crompton & Company in 1878. The company was merged with F.A Parkinson in 1927 to form Crompton Parkinson Ltd. Greaves Cotton and Company, established by James Greaves in 1859, was appointed as their concessionaire in India.

In 1937, Crompton Parkinson established Crompton Parkinson Works Ltd. in Bombay as a wholly owned Indian subsidiary. In collaboration with Greaves Cotton, it also established a sales organization, Greaves Cotton & Crompton Parkinson Ltd. In 1947, just before India's Independence, Lala Karam Chand Thapar, an eminent Indian industrialist, bought Greaves Cotton, when the company was put up for sale. With this acquisition, Karam Chand Thapar gained control of several associated companies such as Crompton Parkison Works, Greaves Cotton and Crompton Parkinson Company.

The name Crompton Greaves Limited was adopted on 2 August 1966, following a court-directed amalgamation of Greaves Cotton and Cromption Parkinson Ltd.

Over the years, the company has evolved into one of India's largest private sector enterprises.

After the acquisition of the Belgium

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

-based Pauwels Trafo/Pauwels Group in May 2005, Crompton Greaves was ranked amongst the world's top ten electrical transformer

Transformer

A transformer is a device that transfers electrical energy from one circuit to another through inductively coupled conductors—the transformer's coils. A varying current in the first or primary winding creates a varying magnetic flux in the transformer's core and thus a varying magnetic field...

 manufacturers. The company subsequently acquired a host of companies outside India. These include Ganz

Ganz

The Ganz electric works in Budapest is probably best known for the manufacture of tramcars, but was also a pioneer in the application of three-phase alternating current to electric railways. Ganz also made / makes: ships , bridge steel structures , high voltage equipment...

 (Hungary

Hungary

Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

), Microsol (Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

), Sonomatra (France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

) and MSE Power Systems (USA).

Crompton Greaves is a part of the US$ 4bn Avantha Group

Avantha Group

Avantha Group is a business conglomerate in India chaired by Gautam Thapar. The US$ 4 billion company is one of India’s largest business conglomerates...

, and is headquartered in a self-owned landmark building at Worli, Mumbai.

Avantha Group

The group was started by Lala Karam Chand Thapar, and after his death in 1963 run by third son, L.M. Thapar. From Independence till the 1980s the Thapar Group was one of the top 10 business houses in India.

Avantha is a thriving offshoot of the old conglomerate and Gautam Thapar

Gautam Thapar

Gautam Thapar is an Indian businessman, who is the chairman and the chief executive officer of the Avantha Group. Thapar is a billionaire and appears on the Forbes list with an estimates net worth of $2 billion...

represents the third generation of this illustrious business family, the baton having been passed on to him by his uncle, L.M. Thapar and his father, B.M. Thapar.

The new identity, Avantha, was launched worldwide on 15 November 2007.