Mumbai, June 23, 2015: JBM Auto Ltd, the country's leading auto component manufacturer, has unveiled its latest and state-of-the-art manufacturing plant in Sanand, Gujarat. The plant was inaugurated by Mr Nigel Harris, President & MD, Ford India in the presence of Mr S K Arya, Chairman and Mr Nishant Arya, Executive Director, JBM Group amongst other dignitaries and officials from both companies.

The total investment at the plant in Sanand is Rs 200 crore where components such as C-pillar; D-pillar; cowl top; shotgun and high level sub-assemblies, etc., shall be manufactured for Ford India Pvt Ltd, the Indian subsidiary of Ford Motor Company. The plant, which is spread over 20 acres, shall supply components to Ford India for rolling out 2.5 lakh vehicles annually.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Nishant Arya, Executive Director, JBM Group said, "JBM Auto has had a long standing association with Ford India and we have partnered and witnessed the Ford growth story in the Indian Automobile market. With this new manufacturing facility here in Sanand, we intend to further consolidate this association with a vision to offer the best quality products at the right time, which has been a constant strength for the JBM Group".

This investment has led to a generation of employment for 500 people in the region; which includes graduates from JBM's multiple Skill Development Centres who shall benefit from the company's special earn while you learn program.

"Sanand has brought in huge opportunities and promising potential for the overall auto industry and we at JBM Group are ready to associate and be partners to this momentum of growth. This is certainly going to massively contribute towards the Make-in-India campaign initiated by our honorable Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi" he added further.

At Sanand - India's Detroit in the making, investments of Rs 15,000 cr - Rs 20,000 crore have been planned in the next 3-4 years by multiple original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and component manufacturers. Once commissioned the region will have a combined capacity of 1.5 million passenger vehicles and 3 million two wheelers per annum. The region shall see additional investments of Rs 15,000 crore by fiscal 2017-18 from leading OEMs like Maruti Suzuki and Honda Motors increasing the installed capacity of the region to 2.2 million units per annum.

Production capacity in this industrial belt is set to surpass the auto huba in the Delhi/NCR belt, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. As for Gujarat, the government has planned to take the share of automotive industries in its overall engineering output to 10% by 2020, from the current 3.7%.

JBM Group's in-house R&D, based in Delhi-NCR, works in sync with our three international R&D centres in Italy, China and UK. JBM Group is involved in the design of all vehicle segments right from concept stage including packaging and engineering projects with Fiat, Escorts, Volkswagen Group, Mercedes-Benz/Daimler, Kamaz, Ashok Leyland, Piaggio, Volvo and other OEMs. At the top end of the spectrum, JBM's engineering services to Ferrari, Lamborghini and McLaren are able to provide higher margins and brand equity.