AutoPartsAsia | OCTOBER 2017 | 17Q: What is the objective of setting up a new
Technical Centre at Savli?
Snyder: Technology plays a crucial role in driving
our business as well as serving our customers. The
technology centre supports our strategy to grow
our business in India by providing superior coating
products and services to our customers. It is designed
to put our customers first and enable them to maintain a
competitive edge and achieve success in this market.
The auto manufacturing market in India is growing
very fast, tracking to some degree, India’s overall GDP
growth. We serve both global and local manufacturers
in the transportation segment. Our customers
produce light vehicles, commercial vehicles and two-
wheelers. Designed with customers in mind, the Indian
technology centre contains a new automotive coatings
development laboratory and a state-of-the-art colour
laboratory. The new facility features modern equipment
that will help us develop and test our products
according to the specifications of our customers.
Q: What kind of value-added services can Axalta
give to the OEMs now?
Snyder: The technology centre is designed to enable
our customers’ long-term success through developing
special paint formulations to ensure superior colour
match, aesthetics, and quality. Our technical team in the
new facility is part of a global team. They leverage best-
in-class solutions and tailor these formulations to meet
customer-specific, local applications and performance
needs. Local colour development and matching mean
that it is exactly what the market needs. Finally, all
products go through local, rigorous applications testing
with robotic spray under controlled conditions.
With a global database of four million colours, Axalta’s
colour formulas enable OEM or commercial vehicle
manufacturers to brand their vehicles with unique,
sophisticated, and beautiful colours, while benefiting
from durable, protective and sustainable coatings.
Q: How do you think this centre will help Axalta to
grow in business and client aggregation?
Sethi: With the opening of our new colour laboratory,
we have access to the global colour styling team. With
the help of this team, we receive feedback related to
new colours that are being introduced into the markets
globally as well as future trends of new colours which
can be developed locally in our new laboratory. This will
help our customers continually introduce a new range
of colours.
Q: Will it be a Centre of Excellence for all
segments in which Axalta operates?
Sethi: Yes; the Technical Centre will provide R&D and
colour support to all the segments we serve in India:
Refinish, Transportation and Industrial segments.
With the new facility at Savli, we can now offer coating
solutions to light vehicle manufacturers. We were not
able to reach as quickly without a local resource like
this. The investment will provide rapid response and
also hone in on the coatings technologies that we will
need to serve our growing customer base in India.