Hinduja Group’s design arm Defiance Tech will be initiating a three-pronged expansion plan that

RELATED ARTICLES FieldFresh on a network expansion drive Swaraj Mazda plans rights issue to fund expansion Swaraj Mazda plans rights issue to fund expansion NMDC plans to diversify, buy mines abroad IOC rejigs expansion plan as losses mount

will involve expanding solutions offering, stepping into more geographies and serving cu-stomers in new verticals, such as aerospace and defence.

The expansion is set to transform the company, wh-ich would become one of the select organisations in the world to offer total end-to-end product development solutions from design to prototyping to component sou-rcing. “Not so many players are present in this domain to offer the full spectrum of services,” said V Suman-tran, executive vicechairman, Hinduja Aut-omotive.

Under its expansion plan, the company is hoping to add about 4,000 people with diversified backgrounds over the next thr-ee-four years to take the total number of people to 5,000 across geographies.

Hinduja Group has ro-ped in Subbu D Subramanian, who was a director and senior vice- president handling automotive and manufacturing verticals for Satyam Computer Services, and has appointed him as chief executive officer of Defiance Tech. Among other projects, Subramanian, who started his career with Ashok Leyland, was handling application management services for global automaker Nissan at Satyam.

Defiance, which at present does business in India and the US, has established itself as a major global player in automotive testing and engineering services. With the addition of few companies in the past six months, Defiance has 60-70 firms in the Fortune 500 list as its clients.

The company will now be expanding its services beyond design and engineering to manufacturing and enterprise solutions.

It also seeks to serve the industries such as aerospace, defence, industrial, hi-tech, and off-highway construction equipment sectors.

“Our vision is to emerge as a global leader in offering integrated engineering, manufacturing and enterprise solutions,” said Subramanian.

Defiance also plans to enter Europe, West Asia and Asia Pacific and will scout for possible acquisitions to enter these geographies. The company had short-listed two companies – one in Europe and another in India for acquisition. But it called off the plan because the valuations were unrealistic.

“We will continue to pursue the inorganic path and there are companies that can add to our existing capabilities,” said Suma-ntran. “Although, Defiance, as a separate company, will focus on the outside world to offer its solutions, the capabilities and the best practices will be available for Ashok Leyland as well.”