DuPont sets up refinish centre in Bangalore

DuPont India, a subsidiary of the US-based $29-billion EI du Pont de Nemours, has opened its second DuPont Refinish Training Centre in the country in Bangalore.

The centre will cater to its OEM customers, mainly automobile manufacturers, workshops and bodyshop outlets in Karnataka, Goa, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. The first centre is located at Savli, Baroda near the existing DuPont plant.

Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, Shankar Krishnan, executive director, DuPont India, said the DuPont Refinish Training Centre had equipment and training facilities focusing on three major brands "" DuPont Centari, LE and Standox for the refinish segment.

"Since these brands have been approved by major carmakers in India we will support them at the regional and state level," he added.

In India, the organised refinish business is valued between Rs 180 crore and Rs 200 crore, and has been growing at 17-20 per cent annually. DuPont Refinish Systems business has been present in India since 1993 and growing on industry lines.

According to Kishore Kotekar, training manager, regional centre-Dupont India, the main focus of the refinish training centre will be to improve the colour matching skills, day-to-day trouble-shooting in the job undertaken, including the proper surface preparation and spray painting techniques to enhance the quality of collision repair.

The 'product training' would be spread over three days and the 'colour matching training' for two days.

On the parent company's investments in India, Krishnan said DuPont would spend $50 million on its knowledge centre in Hyderabad by 2008-end.

"The parent company is betting on India, China and Brazil for growth and by opening the centre in India, the company will move all India-centric product development, and research and development work to the Hyderabad centre," he added.

DuPont presently offers a range of products and services for markets in India, including agriculture and food; building and construction; communications and transportation. It has six manufacturing facilities in India at Baroda, Madurai and Hyderabad.