Retention or attrition has always been a big challenge. We identify the good performers and reward them on occasions such as ‘Family-day' in the presence of all employees and their family members.

India largely depend on imports of technology, hence maintenance and spares availability is always a great challenge. We continuously strive for localisation of the raw materials and machinery. Identifying and developing vendors is one of the key functions of our company.

How important is the Indian operations in ElringKlinger's overall global business footprint?
ElringKlinger has its manufacturing presence in 35 locations across the world with the objective of meeting the local requirements most economically and deliver in time. The India operation was set up in 2008 with the same philosophy.  ElringKlinger believes India has a great potential to grow, similar to that of China, and therefore, attaches great importance to the India operation.
While the automotive market was sluggish during 2014 and 2015, ElringKlinger embarked upon expansion of its Plant doubling its capacity, and set-up world class manufacturing facilities, fully geared-up to more than meet the volume and quality requirements of the automotive industry.

What products do you offer in the Indian market? Will you be adding any new products to the Indian portfolio in the near future?
ElringKlinger offers precision parts, such as sealing systems (Cylinder Head Gaskets, Specialty Gaskets, Metal Elastomers), Rubber Gaskets, Housing Modules such as Cam Covers for light weighting, Shielding Technology such as heat shields, etc. to the Indian market as well as for export. In near future we intend to add hi-tech products, such as Engineered Plastics, Exhaust Abatement technology, and e-mobility.

How was the last financial year for you compared to the previous one? Do you see the market further improving in this financial year?
Our performance in 2015 was short of our expectations, and it was nearly at the same level as that of the previous year owing to the sluggish automotive market. In the current year, the market is much more vibrant with growth rate in automotive sector expected to be 6-7 percent. This certainly will positively help our company's performance as well.

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