See optimised output, strong growth with new plant: Bosch

Bosch has inaugurated its new manufacturing facility at Bidadi, Bengaluru and sees a strong growth in near future, says Steffen Berns, President, Bosch Group-India and MD of Bosch.He expects this new plant to expand business with the company's existing clients and optimise production significantly. He also sees the market picking up again after 3 years.Below is the transcript of Steffen Berns's interview with CNBC-TV18's Poornima Murali.Q1: This is the fifth manufacturing facility in Karnataka and infact the fourth manufacturing facility in India. you have a strong tie with India for over 6 decades, tell us about the new plant, what is the unique things that you will offer for with the new facility hereA: We have been in the country since 1922, so for more than 90 years by now and we have started our first manufacturing plant in Karnataka in Adugodi in 1953, so more than 60 years ago. And this has been in the centre of the city, so originally outside, now the city has grown, it has become centre. And therefore expansion possibilities also logistics have become more difficult and here outside Bangaluru, we have a big area, we have lots of flexibility and we were able to set up this state-of-the-art plant which you see is very light. It is driven by logistics looking at how you can optimise production. It has got the supplies from the air, from the ceiling, so we are very flexible and we will be able to optimise our production here significantly.Q: Tell us more about the investments that went into setting up this facility.A: We have invested Rs 320 crore so far. This is phase one only so, we will have a second phase which is planned for 2018 and there will be more investments going into this. A large part of the machinery we are going to shift. So, we are going to shift today’s production from Adugodi, Bangaluru plant completely out here over some time and then we are going to add new investments, new machines because there are going to be new products coming in especially with newer mission emission coming up.Q: Talking about your clients, now that you have launched another facility here, the state-of-the-art facility here, are you planning to add more clients?A: We are well positioned in diesel systems anyway. So, we basically supply to all the Indian manufacturers and therefore it is extremely difficult if not impossible theoretically to add more clients. Because, most of the customers already are our customers here in India. But, of course, there will be new engines, there will be new technologies coming in. With existing clients we are going to expand our business further.Q: Talking about the growth, what is the kind of growth that you expect in the next five years in terms of the auto and the non-auto components sector?A: I cannot give you guidance for the growth that we see for our company because we are listed, so I cannot tell you specifically. I can only talk about market. And the market, I think after three years of having being more or less flat, market is going to pick up again. There are lots of very positive macro economic factors. The interest rates, the inflation, any other points very positive. And that I think there is a huge potential in India to develop fast. So, we do see strong growth again in the near future.