Inteva Products unveils ₹27 cr. expansion plan in Pune

Inteva Products Vice President & Chief Commercial Officer Marco vom Wege, President & CEO Gerard Roose and Inteva Products India Managing Director Sanjay Kataria addressing the press in Pune.

U.S.-based automotive supplier Inteva Products on Friday announced the expansion of its production facility in Chakan, Pune to meet the rising demand of the global automobile firms.

“We are investing ₹27 crore in the Chakan plant. The expansion work has started and will get completed by next year,”Inteva Products India Automotive Pvt Ltd MD Sanjay Kataria said during an interaction.

The Chakan plant produces automotive components such as side door latches, liftgate latches, window regulators and motors for window regulators for leading Indian automakers – Tata Motors, M&M and Hyundai among others.

As per the plan, Inteva will be adding new assembly lines. It will increase the window regulator capacity to 6.3 million units.

At the same time, the production capacity of motors for window regulators will be ramped up to 9.6 million units from 8.1 million units and that of side door latches to 4.6-million units (3.4 million units).

“India is an important market for us. This expansion reflects Inteva’s ongoing commitment to the Indian market, which is important to our global growth strategy,” said Inteva Products President and CEO Gerard Roose.

He also indicated that Inteva India has started scouting for land to set up second facility as the Pune facility is full.

The new plant will come up either in the West (nearer to the customer base) or in the South that has large number of automobile firms. Plans are also on to increase the headcount of Indian Technology Centre in Bengaluru, he said.

Mr. Kataria said that they will be ending the fiscal with a topline $59 million (₹496 crore) against $49 million last year.

“Our aim is to hit ₹1,000 crore revenue over the next 4-5 years. Before that we must think of setting up a new plant. But it depends on the growth of automobile sector and orders from our customers,” he said.

To a question about localisation, he said that latches had indigenisation level of 93%, window regulators 96% and motor and electronics 78%.

“About 80% of the production was consumed locally and 20% was exported. We would like to increase the share of export going forward,” he said.

(The writer was in Pune at the invitation of the company)