German engineering services firm to expand India operations

Leading German automotive engineering services firm RLE International is expanding its India operations in the next five years to capitalise on growing business opportunities, a top official said on Friday.

"We will invest 10-15 percent of revenue every year from our Indian subsidiary to expand operations, including headcount, development facilities, open a centre of excellence at Pune in Maharastra over the next five years," RLE chief executive Robert Parvez Rupa told reporters.

Though the three-decade-old, 100 million euro Cologne-based privately-hold company had set up two design and software development centres in Bengaluru and Chennai in 2005, its linear annual revenue growth has enabled to post euro 5 million (Rs.35 crore) revenue for calendar year 2014.

"Of the euro 5 million, we are investing 500,000 euros this year and will ramp it up it to 750,000 euros over the next four years to generate euro 20 million (Rs.140 crore) revenue in 2020, growing at 30 percent per annum," Rupa said.

The headcount will be increased four-fold to 1,000 from 250 engineers by 2020.

"We provide product and manufacturing services to OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) and suppliers spanning vehicle and body, power-train and chassis, CAD, CAM, body shop engineering and simulation, die engineering and stamping solution," Rupa said.

Among RLE's India clients are ABB, Audi, BMW, Chrysler, Daimler, General Motors, Ford, Mahindra, Maruti Suzuki, Toyota and Volkswagen.

"Apart from serving more global and Indian OEMs, the Indian subsidiary plans to offer end-to-end engineering solutions by leveraging its global capabilities at a lower cost in India," said newly-appointed managing director Vijay Machigad.

Though the company started as a offshore delivery centre a decade ago to some of its global automotive customers, the steady growth of the Indian market with the advent of global car makers with their models has turned into an opportunity to serve their needs from design to production.

"The Indian market is challenging but we have expertise, experience and right investment strategy to grow in the coming years," the Indian-born Rupa added.