Quantech plans $3 M facility in Bangalore

Tuesday, 24 February 2004, 20:30 IST
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BANGALORE: US-based automotive design, analysis and engineering services firm Quantech Global Services Ltd will invest $3 million on expanding its Asian Technical Center (ATC) in India with a new facility in Bangalore. Promoted by Mukesh Gandhi, a technocrat associated with the Michigan State University, the Bangalore facility will be the second in India after the one in Hyderabad, which was set up in 2000 with an investment of $5 million. It employs 200 engineers. "We are locating the new facility in Bangalore to be close to our key customers such as GM, Delphi and Daimler Chrysler, which have set up their global R&D centres here," Gandhi said at a news conference. The Bangalore facility would employ about 300 software professionals in the next 12 months. The Gandhi family wholly owns Quantech, a $30 million company that has its main technical centre at Okemos in Michigan. Quantech is a CMMi 5 level company that offers solutions ranging from computer aided design and analysis, manufacturing, engineering, and offshore and staffing solutions. "With over 50 percent cost advantage in manpower and operations, we will be able to provide high-end engineering services solutions to our Fortune 50 companies two-and-a-half times faster than our competitors," claimed Gandhi. Some of Quantech's key automotive customers are also planning investment and expansion in India, which is gaining the most preferred nation status for business, technology advancements and investments by global players. Unfolding the company's growth strategy, Gandhi said the Bangalore ATC would enable its customers to respond swiftly to their business and market requirements with its design and engineering capabilities available on real-time basis. "The new facility will contribute significantly to our business revenues as our entire customer mandate for product design and development lies with the Indian team," he said. "Growing at a rate of about 40 percent in the last two years, we expect to double our revenues to $60 million in the next 24 months," Gandhi claimed. "Our game plan is to position Quantech as a one-stop solution provider of automotive engineering and design technology services to our customers worldwide," Gandhi stated. Though the company is currently catering to only global automotive players, plans are underway to target Indian original equipment manufacturers in the passenger car segment once regulations for crash tests, design certification and emission norms become mandatory. According to Quantech chief financial officer Dave Zischke, the Indian operations will also extend marketing support to its customers in the Asia-Pacific region, including product life cycle management expertise from concept to pre-production. "The global engineering services market is currently estimated to be about $7 billion to $ 15 billion. The market for automotive engineering services is in the range of $5 billion to $10 billion. About $50 million to $100 million are spent every year by global players in new engineering services, creating huge business opportunities to firms like Quantech," Zischke said.
Source: IANS