Automotive interior components supplier International Automotive Components (IAC) has continued its global expansion and dedication to delivering innovative vehicle interiors with the opening of a new regional and global engineering center in Pune, India. Marked by a ribbon-cutting ceremony, the 2,415-square-meter (25,569-square-foot) facility officially opened today and will focus on application development engineering to support the vehicle interior needs of domestic and global customer programs. This opening increases IAC’s presence in India to six locations throughout the country and 28 design, technical and commercial centers around the world.
“The newest IAC facility in Pune will further enhance our global integrated engineering solutions focused on the development of exceptional automotive interiors,” said Gajanan Gandhe, IAC senior vice president of Asia Operations.
With the ability to accommodate up to 150 employees, the dedicated engineering facility will provide design engineering and application development support to domestic vehicle manufacturing programs for OEMs, such as Mahindra and Tata, as well as to IAC locations worldwide.
The facility opening frees up approximately 650 square meters (7,000 square feet) of space at IAC’s existing Chaklan II, India, facility, which will be repurposed to expand its manufacturing operations providing additional production capacity and product offerings.
“IAC’s efforts in India align with our global strategy of providing customers with the regional program support needed, but also allows our North American, European and Asian engineering teams to work around the clock on customer projects,” said IAC Terry Gohl, chief operating officer, during the facility’s ribbon cutting event.
IAC is driven by a culture of continuous improvement, and over the past 12 months says it has executed steady growth around the world. In addition to the new engineering facility in Pune, IAC broke ground on a manufacturing plant in Poland in February 2017, began production at a new Czech Republic plant in July 2016 and entered the South American market with a new plant in Brazil in June 2016.
