ARaymond, a 157 years old family-owned company established in 1865, has a headquarter in Grenoble, France. ARaymond is a leading global fastening & assembly solution provider, offering Innovation, Value Creation, Sustainable solutions to its market. ARaymond has 29 manufacturing plants in 26 countries worldwide. They design, engineer, and manufacture assembly systems that eliminate the need for tools, improve assembly line ergonomics, streamline manufacturing, and facilitate serviceability. ARaymond works closely with customers to develop performance fastening, assembly, and fluid system solutions for the complete vehicle life cycle.

As the world is rapidly moving into electrification, ARaymond India has been gearing up already for these novel challenges. The company partners with the customers to simplify system architecture that permits seamless integration with an ergonomic and secured assembly process, ready for efficient up-scaling.

Considering the emerging mobility market in India, ARaymond established its first plant in Pune, in 2007. It shifted to the state-of-the art manufacturing facility in Chakan, Pune in 2014. As on today, ARaymond India operates out of 3 manufacturing plants, 2 in Chakan & 1 in Chennai and having 3 sales and Engineering offices in the same cities including Gurgaon. This helps ARaymond to be close to their customers. Considering the remarkable growth of the company, ARaymond India is expanding its capacity by leaps and bounds. ARaymond India engages with all the major mobility OEMs, Tier 1s, etc. and supports the customers in Industrial & Renewable energy markets with advanced assembly solutions. ARaymond India is one of the fastest growing companies in network with growth of 25% CAGR from last 4 years.

In line with ARaymond Network CSR Strategy and United Nation’s sustainable development goals; ARaymond India engages itself in various CSR initiatives in accordance with its sustainability approach with some key projects such as zero water discharge, LEED certified building, etc. ARaymond India also contributes to the betterment of society with its involvement in providing scholarships to 100 girl children from weak socio-economic background, providing clean drinking water facilities to the villages where water is scarce, planting & maintaining 1000+ trees, donations for uplifting of village schools to name a few.

With its innovative spirit coupled with impressive legacy & experience, the company thrives on trust & loyalty of customers & shall continue to do so in years to come.

Manish Padharia, Managing Director ARaymond India 

Give us an overview of your business for the current year.
Our business in India has been growing by 30% year on year& for this steady growth in last few years, we are thankful for trust of our partners and contribution from our colleagues in India. Today our Turnover in India is approx. 65 Mil Euro, and we have CAGR of 25%+ in last 10 years. We are operating from 2 locations and employing 500+ people in India.

How much was your business impacted during the Covid lockdown period?
There was a period from end of March till July in 2020, which was challenging for us as there were very less orders from customers as they were also hit by lockdown still by the end of year, we were able to compensate this loss of revenue by upward shift of Indian market. During the period where we were having less requirements from our customer, we focused on skill building and brainstorming for our future strategy. We ensured not a single job is lost as we had enough faith in Indian market and its ability to rebound quickly.

Given the present recovery mode of the industry global and in India, what are your future plans?
Current period is real VUCA period. It is very difficult to predict future, the only thing we can do is to stay connected with customers and partners and build our own beliefs. Based on our belief, we put bet on our future. But at the same time, we have faith in our market & its growth, we are heavily investing in infrastructure & resources not only in India but also globally. We are investing globally in new mobility, as this is one of our main markets and at the same time we are also focused on our sustainability through diversification. We have diversified our business on various markets like Agriculture, Renewable Energy and HealthCare. Thanks to our innovation in assembly solutions for this market. They have proved to be very successful.

As India is looking at Carbon neutral solutions in the mobility sector, is this an area that can benefit from your products and services?
We are playing key role with our customer in this transition in India, thanks to our network companies, who are already playing dominant role in Electrification in China and Europe, this experience is helping us in India. We already have developed our experience and solutions in China & Europe which makes us confident in our competencies to offer the solutions to Indian customers. Solutions required for India are different, we must localize and make it for India, which is again a challenge and handled very well by our local engineering team. We are actively contributing into Ethanol fuel adaptation, Hydrogen vehicles and Electrification. We are working in all segments, from Passenger vehicles, two wheelers and Commercial Vehicles.

If affirmative, which are the areas in the EV sector that you would like your business to cater to?
We are working on Assembly solutions through Clipping, Connecting and Bonding. We offer Thermal Management solutions for Battery. Lightweight and miniaturisation of existing solutions by integrating or converting metal to plastic. We are also supporting our customer on Biomaterial solutions and working with some customer on ease of recycling through right assembly solutions. We are also in Fast charging technology and cooling for fast chargers. We also offer Thermal Management of Power Storage.

Is capex being planned for such projects?
Automotive market is undergoing big transition. There are lot of opportunities and many new players; at the same time there is development going around ICE vehicle, where again BS VII emission norms are being discussed. This new technology adaptation by our customers required lot of investment. We have to make our bet smartly, considering our long-term future.

Give an indication of what would be your short, medium and long-term business strategy.
Our core business is of Assembly Solutions, through our technology of Clipping, Connecting and Bonding. Our Strategy is to help our customers to meet their challenges on Assembly. Today, in this transforming market, we want to support our customer with Light Weighting, integration of their parts, making their assembly solutions simple but still meeting their specification. And as long term, for our growth and to work on sustainability, we want to diversify into other markets like Renewable Energy and HealthCare.

India is now being seen as a global destination by OEMs, Tier 1, Tier 2 suppliers for research and development work. How is your company placed in this respect?
We have great Engineering Skills in India, and this is now being recognized by WORLD. Local R&D capability and infrastructure has played a key role in growth of our business in India. We started our R&D activity with some expats and local team in 2008 and now we have full fledge R&D center in Pune with infrastructure same like what we have in Europe/USA and our local team is trained and supported by our colleagues from Europe, China and other location. Today there are many activities we do in our R&D for global development, which also helps in our learning for next level of technology.

There is lot of talk about localization of EV products by government with various schemes like FAME and PLI. How does your company see this aspect?
FAME and PLI, scheme is really a boost to drive EV manufacturing in India, and localization of key components. We are already able to see various localization projects, thanks to this scheme. Localization is key to make technology available for masses, as on today this scheme has various entry level barriers, due to this we are not able to be part of this scheme. At the same time we are not stopping our activities on localization. We have clear strategy to Design for India and Make in India; and many time our Local design is also explored for Global application by our colleagues and customers.

Are you making import substitute products in EV space? If so, can you elaborate on them.
ARaymond Globally has been working on Electric Vehicles since last one decade or more. Our Global Presence is helping our Indian operation to leverage from all the developments which are already done in other part of world and some time carry over by our global customer/partners. We have already localized some solutions and many are still in pipeline. As Capex involved is very high so we have to make smart choice on prioritization of our localization for Electric Vehicle.