Delhi -- French automotive supplier Faurecia announced 5 Jan 2010 that it will set up a seating plant in India. The group also said that it has bought complete ownership of the Taco Faurecia Design Center (TFDC), located in Pune, 160 km south of Mumbai.
Faurecia is currently in the planning stages for the seating plant, to expand its business with India-based automakers, adding to its existing seat mechanism plant in Manesar.
The group's planned acquisition of emissions-control specialist EMCON Technologies is expected to add two plants to Faurecia's existing Indian sites, in Bangalore and Chennai.
Faurecia said its main customers in India are currently Maruti Suzuki and Volkswagen.
The Indian design centre specialises in product development, engineering and simulation for the global automotive industry, and has until now focussed on interior systems. Faurecia said its new status will enable it to become a development centre in its own right, and also serve other business groups such as seating.
As a wholly-owned unit, "it will be able to increase its capabilities and offer the full range of services involved in the development cycle for off-shore and local markets," Faurecia noted.
TFDC plans to increase both its engineering and programme management services as well as those related to quality, finance, purchasing, information technology and manufacturing. According to Faurecia, TFDC teams work for the world's leading automakers from Europe, the Americas and Asia.
The centre was set up in 2004 as a 50/50 partnership with TACO (Tata Auto Comp System Ltd), and now works for 23 Faurecia R&D and D&D (Design & Development) centres in 10 countries.
In Pune, Faurecia said, it now employs over 300 highly skilled and qualified designers, engineers and technicians dedicated to vehicle programmes to be launched around the world.
Faurecia, which is present in China, India, Japan and South Korea, notes that it currently generates some 6 percent of its global revenues (based on 2008) in Asia and said it intends to raise this share soon to 10 percent.
PIC: Faurecia seat manufacture at its operation in Changchun in China
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