Harman International (India) announced the opening of its first facility in India, in Chakan, Pune. The company has invested an amount of ₹20 cr for 35,000 sq ft plant and is scalable up to 65,000 sq ft. The company also has two R&D centers in Pune and Banglore and is now looking to expand manufacturing operations in the country. The Chakan facility has an installed capacity of 40,000 audio sets for automotive applications and is currently operating on 1 assembly line with strength of 150 employees. The setup is capable of incorporating 3 more lines.
The company currently caters to the TATA and FIAT for the in-car audio and infotainment systems. The company has also signed a multi-year deal with TATA to develop audio and infotainment systems. Speaking on the occasion, Chairman, President and CEO, Mr. Dinesh C. Paliwal expressed eager interest in making long term commitments in India. He also told the media about the company’s abilities in areas of intuitive infotainment, gesture-based systems operating systems, night-driving technologies, and retina scanning technologies in the R&D pipeline. The flexibility in manufacturing methods will also allow for multiple products to be produced within the same facility.
Currently, Harman outsources its parts from China, Mexico and the U.S.A and will eventually try to localize the vendor base. Mr.Lakshminarayan, Managing Direcor, Harman International hopes to up the revenue from the current $70 million to an ambitious $250 million by 2017.
Story: Aniruddha Mulgund
