Benecke-Kaliko AG enters the Indian market

Benecke-Kaliko AG, part of Continental’s ContiTech division and among the market leaders in surface covering materials for automotive interiors globally, has entered the Indian market by setting up an engineering and sales office at Pune. “With the engineering and sales office in India, Benecke-Kaliko now has a direct access to Indian OEMs and intends to support the growing demand for luxury interiors for the new generation of Indian customers,” said Dr Dirk Leiß, CEO of Benecke-Kaliko AG (pictured).

The new engineering/sales office will enable the company to work closely with the local OEMs and provide its strong global expertise starting from the early design phase of the project, overall development and successful launch phase to best-in-class customer support during serial delivery. Benecke-Kaliko introduces its premium interior product offerings for instrument panels, door panels, pillar trims, floor consoles, seating systems and sun visors to the fast growing Indian automotive market.

Commenting on the occasion Chintan Kanakia, country manager India for Benecke-Kaliko, said: “Benecke-Kaliko is also now here to support the customers to meet the growing demand for luxury interiors in India. Vehicles in India are experiencing a paradigm shift from the earlier steel interiors in the 1980s to hard plastic interiors in recent times to soft interiors now and in the future. The end consumer is slowly becoming more matured in terms of requirement of more pleasant interiors to have the feel-good factor and the importance of fit and finish and genuine leather look to add to the luxury quotient.”

According to Claude dGama Rose, country head for Continental in India, ‘‘Once again, Continental proves its commitment to India by investing in this fast-growing market. With the backing of our state-of-art manufacturing set-ups globally, world-class R&D, engineering, design and testing centres, best quality systems and highly experienced people, Benecke-Kaliko, can add value to our Indian customers”.

Benecke-Kaliko, is part of Continental’s ContiTech division which has a presence in India for many years, operating two production plants and employing around 900 people. Benecke-Kaliko is headquartered in Germany and has a worldwide presence with state-of-art plants in Germany, China and Mexico, in addition to its sales and engineering offices in Europe, USA, Japan, Argentina and Brazil.