Newly formed Inalfa Gabriel Sunroof Systems (IGSS), a joint venture between Gabriel India (part of Anand Group) and Dutch-based Inalfa Roof Systems, is looking to expand its supplier base in India.
In a conversation with Mobility Outlook, Manoj Kolhatkar, Managing Director, Gabriel India, noted that the company is scanning for new suppliers.
Interestingly, the mammoth size of Anand Group and its component manufacturing companies in the auto vertical might help the same localise sunroofs soon. He explained, “We have suppliers in the Anand Group ecosystem who might be able to source what we need for building sunroofs in India. Hence, we are also scanning our own database of suppliers.”
Q1CY24is when the company intends to begin supply. It would start with one assembly line having a capacity of around 200,000 units per year, and depending on the demand, more lines would be added in future. Further, it looks at potential revenue of around INR 1,000 crore from the sunroof business by 2030.
Notably, many sunroofs are made up of over 50 different components. As per the official spokesperson of Inalfa, professionals working on assembling these require prowess, which can only be attained via regular training and upskilling. “As we are entering into a new market and a new segment, we need to make sure that the training is done right to ascertain the quality of the products,” he said.
Further, owing to the attrition rate of the workforce in the country, Inalfa believes that training new people often might also be a challenge. The company has placed a team of design and manufacturing engineers in India to train the new team that will be working on manufacturing sunroofs.
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Localisation For Progress
The collaboration between the two companies will primarily depend on importing some components from Korea and Europe and sourcing the rest from India. As per the spokesperson of Inalfa, the new entity had triggered the plan to localise components from day one.
However, neither of the JV partners was open to sharing the localisation levels. Kia and Hyundai will be the first two OEMs that the new entity will serve in India.
“Finding the right supplier is a challenge, and so is finding a supplier who can provide us with the right quality of materials we need. We are sure that our localisation levels will be at their best in some time to come, and we will be able to add more local value to sunroofs in India,” the spokesperson said.
The company says there is no difference in the quality of sunroofs made overseas and those manufactured in India. Notably, Inalfa is already in China, Japan, and Korea (Asia).
Best Way To Start A New Plant
For the sunroofs that the company will start manufacturing in India, the JV company does not need to immediately collaborate with vehicle OEMs as all the design work has already been done. Inalfa's spokesperson highlighted that collaborating with design engineers of a vehicle OEM is required when a new product is being developed.
According to him, the best way to start manufacturing in a new facility is to transfer the production of an existing product. He is hopeful that as the India-based manufacturing facility starts serving more OEMs, the Inalfa-Gabriel team will start collaborating with these OEMs from the design and ideation phase. Interestingly, with the US and China as two of its biggest markets, Inalfa has a presence in 15 locations worldwide.
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The newly formed IGSS, which will initially be a wholly owned subsidiary of Gabriel India, will manufacture sunroofs for PVs at a new plant near Chennai that will start operations in Q1CY24 at a projected $22 million investment.
Kolhatkar, during the press briefing, also shared that there are no immediate plans for filling an IPO, and the new entity will only serve the Indian market “as of now”.
The global automotive sunroof market is expected to grow from $7 billion in 2022 to $19.87 billion by 2032, at a CAGR of 11% during 2023-2032. As per Brainy Insights, one of the marketplaces for this product category that is expanding the quickest is India.