GROB recognized the enormous potential of this rapidly growing market early on after the opening of the Indian automotive market to foreign car manufacturers at the end of the 1990s and established the first sales and service branch on the South Asian subcontinent as part of the first delivery of a flexible production system in 2007. In the following years of active market development, further important orders were processed and sales, service and after sales were further expanded by the GROB India branch. The Indian market has traditionally played an important role for GROB in Asia and will continue to grow in importance in the coming years. Against the background of securing its presence in the Indian market and its strategic commitment in the region in the long term, the decision to build a production plant in Bangalore was made two years ago and the foundation stone for the eight million investment project was laid on May 4, 2022 and has now been officially opened.
GROB India - a tour de force for the entire GROB Group
Building a plant means something completely different in terms of resources than just setting up a branch with sales and service. Not only because of the enormous investment required, but also to bring the necessary expertise in technology, quality and reliability into the country. A package that has also become a real tour de force for the main plant in Mindelheim. But the future will show that India will develop into a very large market and gain in importance for the GROB Group. As investment budgets in India are generally low, GROB is also forced to continuously use local products. "With our 'Made in Germany' products in India, we are only competitive in terms of price to a limited extent. We can achieve lower manufacturing costs locally in Bangalore with a high proportion of added value," explains GROB Group CEO German Wankmiller. "However, in order to manufacture the complex GROB products in India, it is necessary to continuously develop all production processes with a pronounced quality data save. This applies first and foremost to the machining centers, but also to the electric machines and systems in the near future."
GROB India - a win-win situation
In order to counter the shortage of qualified skilled workers and engineers at the Mindelheim and Bluffton plants, GROB has been employing qualified Indian workers for years. There are already 40 - 50 Indian skilled persons working in Mindelheim today and 30 Indian employees will be working at the American GROB plant in Bluffton in the future. "Indian skilled persons are highly qualified, intelligent and have an excellent command of English," says Wankmiller, explaining the win-win situation for the GROB Group's enormous demand for skilled workers. Skilled workers who will not only support the GROB plants worldwide, but will also return to work in India after intensive induction and training. For fall 2024, it is planned to additionally rent an office complex in Bangalore to employ engineers and software specialists who will not only work for GROB India, but also provide design and software services for other GROB plants worldwide.
GROB India - Plant with good prospects
GROB's commitment to build a plant in India is based on a long, strategically oriented process and has developed over the years. GROB has been active in India for many years and has become an established partner for OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers. There is great potential for GROB, particularly in the universal machine business and especially in the aerospace sector. The region around Bangalore plays an important role here, as many customers and suppliers are located here, as the many guests from this region at the opening ceremony demonstrated. And the prospects are good: "We expect strong growth over the coming years," Christian Müller (CSO) is convinced. "The focus in the Indian automotive industry is still on conventional drives. However, we are already offering one or two e-projects in India. Especially as we are in direct contact with the largest Indian car manufacturers TATA and Mahindra."
Comments on the opening ceremony:
Florian Grob: We are proud that we have now been able to celebrate the opening of our 6th production plant in India and thus further expand the family business. We have thus made a first start in building up and expanding in the promising Indian market.
German Wankmiller: With our plant in India, we are not only creating an improved position in the highly competitive Indian market, but are also pursuing long-term goals, such as the establishment of an internal, strategic technology and development team, which is important for our international GROB plant network.
Christian Müller: It makes a fundamental difference whether you sell machines from a catalog or whether you present the machines to customers in a beautiful showroom and bring them to life in the GROB world. With our plant, we now have the opportunity to better demonstrate the GROB genes of our machines to our customers and convincingly present their advantages.
Area: Hall 5,000 m²
Property: 80,000 m²
Construction time: 2 years
Investment: EURO 8 million
Number of employees: 130
Products: Machining centers, automation
