Thai company to set up production base in India

Turbo Intertrade Company India, a wholly- owned subsidiary of Turbo Intertrade Company in Thailand, plans to set up a manufacturing base near Coimbatore to make rubber components. The Kochi-based company has, during its four-year stint in India, been importing and selling brake pads, brake shoes and filters for cars and utility-vehicles through its distributors and dealers.

“India is a growing market with great opportunities and it makes sense to set up a facility that can also double up for exports,” says managing director, Haris Puthenkode. In his view, the benefits are labour costs and easier availability of raw material especially rubber. Turbo Intertrade will soon launch poly v-bests in the aftermarket here. There will be about 80 varieties suitable for most four-wheelers. At a later date, it hopes to introduce suspension parts for four-wheelers, he said.

The first phase of construction will see the commissioning of an 8,000 square-foot facility by March 2007. The company needs to make a choice between importing machines and tools from its Thai headquarters or source locally, towards which a decision will be made soon. The Free Trade Agreement between India and Thailand could press the case for imports but Puthenkode says that a local presence can keep pace with the growth of the automobile sector in India. Apart from this, the products from the Thai plant do not qualify under the FTA list for the moment.

This unit has been meeting the needs of the aftermarket in the Middle East, Japan and parts of Africa for the last 17 years. It is now planning to enter Europe too. The parent company has sole distributors in Dubai and Japan and dealers for other countries. In India it has established a 100 percent subsidiary. In India, the company has stockists and distributors in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. Plans are on to increase the retail chain in other States.