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| Robert Bosch Engineering to expand India operations; to invest Rs 120 crore | | Q&A: FRIEDHELM PICKHARD |
| Raghuvir Badrinath / Bangalore May 05, 2009, 00:05 IST |
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Robert Bosch, the global $55 billion auto component major, is eyeing to grow its India software engineering centre despite global credit crunch The company has been taking measured steps to cater to the expansion in India. In an interview with Raghuvir Badrinath, Friedhelm Pickhard, MD, Robert Bosch Engineering & Business Solutions, a wholly owned subsidiary of Robert Bosch GmBH in India detailed these plans and how the company intends to grow despite the global credit slowdown. Excerpts:
Robert Bosch Engineering Centre in India has been growing despite the global credit crunch. How are you able to grow in such a situation?
During the past year, we took a decision to cut our pricing by 7.5 per cent to stay competitive while bidding for projects and this has been helping to an extent. The flow of projects to the India centre has not dropped and we intend to keep the momentum going. During 2008 calendar, we posted sales turnover of Rs 940 crore and during 2009, we have a target of Rs 1,038 crore, a growth of 10 per cent.
What about plans for expanding India operations?
We employ close to 5,800 people in Bangalore and Coimbatore, and last year we invested around Rs 65 crore to expand. During the current year, we intend to grow our employee base by 15 per cent and we intend to add a little over 800 people to our rolls and invest around Rs 120 crore for the expansion. Nearly 80 per cent of this expansion will be in Coimbatore.
The global auto industry is caught in mire and may take years to come out of it. How is Robert Bosch innovating for smart cars and better energy management which is the core focus of global auto majors?
Engine management, automotive safety systems, driver assistance systems, automotive body electronics, automotive diagnostics are core to our centre here in India. We interact with global auto majors on a constant basis and we are fine tuning energy management in each and every step.
In addition to the software centre, you also house a shared services centre? What are the plans to take that business forward?
As of now we are focussing our resources to service various Robert Bosch offices globally in various processes such as HR management, accounting, shared services purchasing. Slowly we are starting out to tap third party clients to grow this business. As of now we do not feel the need to separate that business as it employs around 300 people and if need be at a later stage, we may look at spinning of that as a separate business.
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