Haworth plans to manufacture 55,000 chairs in India

New Delhi, Feb 5 (UNI) Haworth, one of the largest manufacturers of office furniture, plans to manufacture over 55,000 chairs in India from its Pune facility this year.

Haworth Asia Pacific President and General Manager Frank Rexach, said, ''We have witnessed phenomenal growth in India. In 2007, we will strengthen our business presence across the country, work towards localising our products and scaling up our production in the Pune plant to support our growth plans in the region.'' He further added India is poised to play a significant role in our growth plans for the region by becoming an export hub for our business in the West Asia.

The Haworth India facility inaugurated in March 2006, has already manufactured and supplied over 35,000 chairs and now accounts for almost 50 per cent of Haworth's revenue within the Asia Pacific region.

Company's Managing Director Kapil Agarwal said, ''We are growing fast in India. We plan to inaugurate showrooms in Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune and Kolkata over the next two quarters - growing our presence to seven cities in India. Our team has expanded to 120 members to service over 200 customers in IT, financial and services sectors in India.'' The company have already localised the manufacturing of the 'Look' and 'Tea' range of chairs in India in 2006 and plan to increase the localised product portfolio in 2007, Mr Agarwal added.

Haworth will also introduce its proprietary 'Ideation' in India - a knowledge-based service that will research and study Indian work environments for customers with special needs.

UNI