Anand group plans 4 new facilities in Chennai

Chennai: Anand group, the $640 million automotive components and systems major, is looking at setting up at least four new greenfield facilities in Chennai to support the requirements of its prospective customers.

The Delhi headquartered group is in talks with two joint ventures of Nissan-Renault and Ashok Leyland for manufacturing exhaust systems for passenger cars and LCVs, respectively.

Once the deals are through, the group would be setting up four facilities in Chennai before 2010, said Mr C. S. Patel, Chief Executive Officer, Anand Automotive Systems. This would make Chennai as the largest revenue generating hub for Anand Group, he said.

Mr Patel was addressing the media during the inauguration of a manufacturing facility of a group company, Emcon Technologies India Private Ltd (ETI), which is a 74:26 joint venture between the US-based Emcon Technologies and the Anand group.

ETI has so far invested $4 million including $2.5 million invested in the new plant in Maraimalainagar, inaugurated on Monday. The CEO of $4 billion Emcon Technologies, Mr Lee Gardner, said ETI would further infuse $10 million for capacity expansion and creation of new facilities. Other than a factory in Chennai, the company has a manufacturing unit in Bangalore.

It is currently constructing a new facility in Singur to supply exhaust system for the Tata Nano car. ETI is mulling options to set up a greenfield facility in Pune, where some of ETI’s customers, such as International Truck and Volkswagen, are putting up their own manufacturing facilities.