Ernst Kellermann, chief operating officer of the 1 billion euro Marquardt Group, a leading German manufacturer of electro-mechanical and electronic switches and switching systems for automobiles and other sectors, will inaugurate an assembly line in the company's Mumbai plant on Tuesday, September 27.

This could be the start of a sharp business growth curve for the supplier in the Indian automotive market, which is witnessing a resurgence after a slow growth period.

"Till 2008, 100 percent of the business was from appliances. Today, we are 60 percent automotive, 40 percent appliances. In 2020, the contribution from the automotive sector will be 85-90 percent of business in India," Ran Bahadur Singh, CEO, Marquardt India, told Autocar Professional.

Singh is bullish about bagging a big order from an Indian OEM when he, along with Kellermann, meets the concerned official of the OEM this week. Last year, Marquardt bagged a double-digit million euro order from Tata Motors. Marquardt has been present in India since the 1970s when its products were manufactured and sold to the Indian Railways by an Indian entity, R G Keswani Industries. Marquardt acquired R G Keswani Industries in 1996.

New plant in Chakan

With new orders in the pipeline, Marquardt plans to set up a greenfield plant in the automotive hub of Chakan, near Pune. The plant is likely to be commissioned by 2019-20. Last year, the German supplier inaugurated an R&D centre in Pune. There are 160 engineers in the R&D centre. The company plans to increase the number of engineers in the R&D centre to 200 by this December, and to 400 in the next 3-4 years. By then, the centre will be the largest, globally, for Marquardt. Romania, Germany, France and China are the other countries where it has R&D centres. 

The current, and planned investment, reflects Marquardt's strategy of growing "over-proportionately" in Asia as compared to its other business regions. "Within our ‘Marquardt 2022’ strategy, we want to be more or less double in sales. We want to equalise our shares in the three continents a little bit more. Right now, we are fairly highly biased into Europe and we want to grow more in the Americas, and over-proportionately in Asia," says Kellermann. Asia currently contributes 10-12 percent of Marquardt's overall sales of a billion euros.

Marquardt is banking on the trickling down trend of many technological features from luxury cars to some mainstream segments. It plans to offer gesture control systems and smart wearables for automotive application in India, as part of the next set of offerings to OEMs here.