Stadco sets up Chennai centre

UK's leading supplier of automobile body structure, Stadco, on Monday inaugurated its first engineering centre in Southeast Asia at Chennai. The centre will take up design and engineering activities for both automotive and commercial vehicle industries.

Speaking to reporters, Peter Spackman, director - emerging markets, Stadco, said the new centre initially would take up design and engineering activities and the focus would be on styling, CAD (computer-aided design) development, CAE (computer-aided engineering) analysis, and production. This would be Stadco’s first phase of operations in India.

Further expansion plans include the development of a prototype manufacturing operation and a manufacturing unit in India. Spackman did not give any time frame for the expansion.

 

Currently, the company employs around 15 people at Chennai and is planning to increase it to around 100, depending on the project requirements. Stadco is also planning to shift some of its designing works from UK to Chennai.

Chennai is a growing market and is becoming a hub for both domestic and international automotive players, who are now planning to outsource body shops and assembling shops works, said Spackman.

Stadco manufactures over 70 million parts annually from six plants in the UK and one in Germany. The company employs around 1,200 people and registered a turnover of around 150 million pound in 2007.