23rd July 2024 Pune, Maharashtra, India Huf, the German-headquartered specialist for car access and authorization solutions, celebrated recently the inauguration of its new testing and requalification center in India at its plant in Chakan (Pune) with local customers and employees. With the so-called TCIL (Technical Center India Laboratory) Huf expanded its local engineering competence after the inauguration of the Technical Center India (TCI) in the Baner (Pune) last year. Huf is thus continuing its growth plan and making India a cornerstone in its engineering and operations network to provide global automotive customers with high-quality and innovative products.
“In 2008 Huf opened its doors in Pune and very quickly became a well-known address for excellent access and authorization products,” said Dirk Fischer, COO of Huf, at the inauguration ceremony. “Today, Huf India is one of our flagship locations for lean management and sustainability. The team in India plays an important role in our Grow beyond strategy to increase our net sales in 2031 up to 2 billion Euros.”
“We are expanding our global network of testing and validation centers to meet the ever-increasing demand for our innovative products and fulfill the high expectations of our customers”, said Bogdan Nuna, CTO of Huf. “The new TCIL is the next milestone in our global set up of development teams to deliver innovation to customers when and where it is needed at reasonable prices, while retaining the leading position when it comes to product quality. With the TCI in Pune and the new TCIL in our plant in Chakan we have now a very good set-up to accelerate our business growth not only on in this important market but also in Asia and above.”
The TCIL is located in a new prepared area of more than 350 square meters with further expansion potential of additional 200 square meters in the Huf site in Chakan. Skilled test and validation engineers will work around the clock on the latest car door handles and locking solutions for Asian but also global customers. “The TCIL complements perfectly our strategy of high vertical integration in India,” said Sandeep Chaudhary, Vice President Huf India. “In Chakan we have the production competencies like die casting, molding, Robotic painting and assembly, and can now directly test and validate our products to supply top quality to our customers. Combined with the product development team located in the western part of Pune we offer high competencies in engineering and production.”
The TCIL is the next step after the opening of the new TCI at the ultra-modern building in the Baner Balewadi district of Pune. The new Laboratory will support the product development activities for the Asian market by testing and validating upcoming innovations but also highly frequented products like lock sets and door handles that Huf is already supplying to global car manufacturers. The new TCIL will also take care of the annual requalification requirements emerging from other Asian and other global Huf locations.
Huf is on track to meet its growth targets for 2031
Just last week, Huf opened the Technical Center Romania Laboratory in Timisoara and is continuing to expand its engineering competence centers with the new laboratory in India. Huf is running Tech Centers in Germany, Romania, China, USA, Mexico, and India. In its 116-year company history, Huf has established itself as the specialist for secure car access and authorization solutions with constant innovative strength. The company benefits from megatrends in the automotive industry and drives innovation for OEMs worldwide thanks to its customer- and market-oriented product development. With the restructuring completed last year and successful refinancing, the company has laid the foundation and plans to achieve annual net sales of two billion euros by 2031.