Bengaluru, India – Universal Urethanes has expanded its car seat foam plant in Bidadi, in the southwestern state of Karnataka, India. The site opened in 2008 to supply Toyota Boshoku, the components division of Toyota Group, primarily for the production of head rests for models like Toyota Motor Corporations’ Innova MPV and Corolla compact car models.
In the intervening years the plant has become a supplier of complete car foam seats to Toyota for models including its seven-seat Fortuner and five-seat Hyryder Urban Cruiser SUVs.
“We have invested INR 150m in hiking capacity from 4,000 to 10,000 foam seats per day, adding additional capacity to manufacture 6,000 car foam seats each day at the Bidadi plant,” said Dhananjaya Naidu, managing director, Universal Urethanes. “We have raised the capacity to cater new orders for [the] Toyota Hyryder Urban Cruiser and [for] Maruti Suzuki’s Breeza compact SUV.
The Indian automobile market is experiencing a boom, with OEMs seeing production levels returning to pre-pandemic levels. The expansion of Universal Urethanes’ Bidadi site was completed in September 2022.
The company is also is in negotiations with Korean OEMs including Kia Motors and with multiple automobile OEMs in southern part of India.
Universal Urethanes also manufacturing wind channels for ventilated seat and engine insulation parts for range of vehicles. Among its major clients are Hyundai Transys for seats and NVH India (a subsidiary of NVH Korea) for insulation parts.
Universal Urethanes opened a second production unit in Dharwad, Karnataka in 2012 for the supply of seat foams for bus and coach manufacturer Tata Marcopolo, a joint venture between India’s Tata Motors and Brazil’s Marcopolo. The Dharwad facility has been dormant since the pandemic but Naidu says the company plans to resume production by April 2023.
