Faurecia to start India production in 2009

UBIFRANCE in collaboration with the Economic Department of the French Embassy in India accompanied 15 leading French automotive companies to the Auto Expo 2008.

The main aim was for these companies to promote their technologies and experiences in areas like design, engineering, manufacturing and supply. India is becoming increasingly attractive to French automobile manufacturers, with some prominent French suppliers having built lasting relationships in the country. The French Pavilion brought together these companies under one roof to meet with business people from the Indian automotive sector. Faurecia which is a major global supplier of automotive seats and other interior components was part of this delegation and plans to commence production of seat recliners and sliders in India from 2009. We spoke to the company’s India General Manager James Desban about their plans for the Indian market

James Desban, india general manager — faurecia

Can you tell us about your plans for the Indian market?

We believe that the time is right for us to enter into your market. India we know is a difficult market but it's growing very fast and we have decided to come in with one of our main business, which is seating systems.

We have just received two new orders from Maruti Suzuki for the seat mechanism like recliners and sliders for their two new models. We already supply the company with these mechanisms for its Swift and SX4 models, but currently they are imported from our Chinese plant. In fact, we work with Suzuki worldwide including in countries like Hungary and China. Now, we have decided to localise their production in India, which should begin around early 2009 and the new plant will be near Delhi. We are keen to help the companies here meet future norms for safety through our innovations and I am confident that we can do this.

What kind of capacity are you setting up at this new plant?

When we set up, it will be a no-compromise facility. By this I mean that we will set an absolutely world-class facility in India. We will have a capacity to supply around 400,000 cars per annum, so you can understand that we are talking about making big numbers in India. You can assume that every model requires roughly four recliners and sliders but of course this will vary from model to model.

What other products are you looking at for India?

Since we are suppliers of entire seats elsewhere in the world, we can quite easily expand our line-up in India to offer related products like seat frames. Also we will have an opportunity to get into exhaust systems in India since we have already received an order and we are in the process of deciding how to supply these systems. It’s likely that some part of the exhaust system would be imported and then it would be assembled here. We also have a joint venture with Tata Autocomp which employs 250 people and works on developing seat systems for not just Tata cars but others as well.