GKN Aerospace $10 million investment in new facility in India

GKN Aerospace will officially open its all-new facility for Electrical Wiring Interconnection Systems (EWIS) in Pune, India. GKN Aerospace India will celebrate this significant milestone with an inauguration ceremony on Wednesday 4th December. GKN Aerospace Leadership, together with State of Maharashtra Government officials, as well as investment partners and customers, will come together to recognize GKN Aerospace strengthening its footprint in the region and the importance of the fast growing Aerospace market in India. The Ambassador of the Netherlands in India, Mr. Marten van den Berg, John Pritchard, CEO Aerostructures and Systems Europe and Asia and Michiel Barendse Vice President & Managing Director of GKN Fokker Elmo will be guest speakers at the ceremony.

The site will focus on the assembly of wiring systems for commercial aircraft and aero-engines like the Airbus A320neo, Boeing 737, 777X and Boeing 787. The Pune facility will operate alongside the existing Joint Venture for wiring systems in Bangalore, which is serving the defence market.

GKN Aerospace will create 200 jobs in 2020 growing to 800 within five years. GKN Aerospace will recruit a significant number of female operators and engineers and will provide on-site training for employees. A team of 30 persons has been built to date. GKN Aerospace has invested $10 million in the site and in its state of the art equipment and technologies. The expansion to Asia is an important part of GKN Aerospace’s long-term growth strategy and global operating model. 

The new site, with a surface of 11,000m2, is a fully owned GKN Aerospace business and located in Pune in the state Maharashtra. Pune offers favourable conditions in the areas of business development, labour, education & training and infrastructure. It also has an excellent location relative to the company’s major customers in India. Site certification process and recruitment are on track and initial production has recently started. 

GKN Aerospace, GKN Driveline and GKN Powder Metallurgy have made significant investment in India in recent years. The three businesses operate eight locations in India with 2000 employees. India is an important country in GKN Aerospace’s plan to expand the Asian footprint. GKN Aerospace recently also opened a new facility in Malaysia, another element of the Asian expansion plan. By the time both sites are fully up-and-running, around 15% of GKN Aerospace’s employees are expected to be based in Asia.

John Pritchard, CEO Aerostructures and Systems Europe and Asia said: “We are really proud to open this state of the art facility in Pune. This is a true demonstration of our enduring partnership with India and of the solid growth of the Indian Aerospace Industry and of our EWIS business. The collaboration with the local authorities and support of the regional government has been vital.”