The Hindu Business Line : Tenneco bringing all subsidiaries under one entity

Bangalore, Sept. 29 The $4.4-billion global auto parts’ maker, Tenneco has decided to merge all its subsidiaries in India into one entity and open two more factories in the country.

The Tenneco India Managing Director, Mr Mike Charlton, told newspersons on Monday that the rationalisation of the Indian operations was being carried out because the company wants to be in a position to offer multi-parts from any of the single location in the country. “We should be able to complete the merger much before March,” he said.

Tenneco, a key tier-one supplier to passenger car makers such as General Motors, Toyota and Ford, has currently five subsidiaries in India including an engineering centre in Chennai. It has five manufacturing plants including those in Halol and Pune, which are ‘just-in-time’ plants, Puducherry which is used mainly for exports, Bawal and Hosur, which is its mother site.

2 more facilities

It is in the process of setting up two more plants, one each in Chennai and Chakan. There is a possibility of the Pune facility being closed down once the Chakan plant starts running to its full capacity. The company also plans to reduce costs by sourcing most of its steel requirements domestically.

Mr Charlton did not specify investment plans for the company but said the total sales of the Indian operations should more than treble by 2012 from the current level of about $45 million. The total employee strength is also expected to rise to about 1,300 in the next 24 months from the current level of about 700.

Tenneco also sells products in the after market through its Monroe, Clevite, Walker, Fillet and Fonos brands. The after market sales constitutes about 20 per cent of the total sales of the Indian company.

Tenneco is a world leader in ride control systems as well as emission control systems. It plans to supply ride control systems to Toyota’s new small car project, the 800L and the YV4 platform of Maruti Suzuki, for Volkswagen’s Polo car, the emission control system, Nissan’s small car code named, XO2a and b both emission control as well as ride control systems, for Ford small car and Nano, ride control systems. Most of these small cars are expected to be launched during the late 2009 or early 2010.

More Stories on : Restructuring | Automobile Components

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page