Exclusive! Varroc to invest in a new plant in Gujarat

Home-grown automotive components major, Varroc Group is planning to invest in a greenfield plant in Gujarat under its polymers division. The new facility would be the first for the company in the state of Gujarat. To set up the new plant, the company has acquired eight acres of land at an undisclosed location from where it plans to manufacture polymer products for primarily the two-wheeler business.

It is known that the company produces products such as seats, body parts, air filter assembly, mirror assembly for the two-wheeler segment and body parts for the passenger car and commercial vehicle segments under its polymer division. According to company officials, while the plant commissioning will be completed by 25 percent under its initial phase, the rest will be used for future expansion. The said plant is expected to employ nearly 100 skilled professionals as the commencement is scheduled for 2016.

It is to be noted that Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India (HMSI), a customer to the Varroc Group, has recently laid down the foundation stone at Vithalpur in Gujarat for its fourth two-wheeler plant in India, also touted to be the world’s largest only scooter manufacturing facility. HMSI’s fourth plant will have an annual production capacity of 1.2 million units and is expected to be operational by the end 2015. This hints at the chunky business opportunity for its vendors who are gradually setting up shops in Gujarat following their OEM customers.

Varroc’s polymer plant based at Narsapura (Karnataka) is known to supply seats and other plastic parts to HMSI’s facility (for the Dream Series bikes and Activa scooter) located nearby.

Aggressively expanding in the domestic market, the company is also planning to invest in setting up an advanced engineering centre possibly in Pune, and has recently setup its facility in Chennai to boost its polymer business (Autocar Professional broke the story on July 30, 2014)

In an exclusive interview to Autocar Professional, Tarang Jain, managing director, Varroc Group disclosed that “Yes, we have invested in a moulding unit in Rajasthan and a polymer product manufacturing plant in Chennai, both of which are operational. The focus is increasing on improving efficiencies in operations which will result in better utilisation of our existing sites resulting in a possible realigning of our footprints. We are also planning to invest in Gujarat to support our growing customers this year. We are also investing in creating an advanced engineering centre in Pune this year to focus on next-generation technology development.”