Hirotec Group, a manufacturer of door products and equipment, plans to invest an additional Rs400m (US$7.67m) to establish an integrated global engineering centre of excellence and manufacturing facility in its existing unit in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu.
“The investments are done to establish facilities which would meet Hirotec Global standards to facilitate in the production of quality tooling solutions to growth needs of automotive OEMs in India,” Press Trust of India quotes Katsutoshi Uno, Chairman of Hirotec America, and Director, Hirotec Corporation, as saying.
This integrated facility is scheduled to come on stream by April 2014, Uno said. The facility will have a modern machine shop, engineering office for 300 people, assembly and tool try-out facilities.
According to Uno, this investment is aimed at meeting the demand for quality tooling solutions by vehicle manufacturers in India. For automotive OEMs in the country, quality tooling translates into increased localisation, shorter vehicle launch cycles and cost optimisation, Business Line reported.
So far, Hirotec has invested around Rs200m in its tooling facility in Coimbatore. It also has a sales and support facility in Pune. The supplier caters to OEMs such as Ford, Nissan, Tata Motors, Hyundai and Volkswagen in the country.
In the last financial year, Hirotec India posted a turnover of US$5m. The first half of the current fiscal year saw the supplier post a turnover of US$10m, the report said, citing Takahiro Hayama, President of the company’s Indian operations. The company expects turnover to be around US$25m in the 2013-14 fiscal, rising to US$30m in 2014-15, when the new centre becomes operational.
