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25 Years SCHURTER Electronics (India)

In 2020, SCHURTER Electronics (India) Pvt. Ltd. had the opportunity to look back on its

25th anniversary. What started as a small and modest company in Mumbai has developed

into a stately enterprise. And despite the COVID 19 pandemic, the company did not remain

idle in its anniversary year, but continued to build a successful future.

It was the beginning of the 1990s: Hans-Rudolf Schurter took over as Chairman of the Board of Directors from his father Rolf. At the same time, Asia was the emerging continent. China was awakening and beginning to reform. The martial term Tiger Countries was on everyone's lips. SCHURTER, at that time almost exclusively present in Western Europe and the USA, decided to venture east as well in order not to miss this opportunity.

China or India?

But the focus was not on Hong Kong or Singapore. Many Western companies were drawn to China, others to India. The most populous countries on earth promised enormous potential. The choice between the giants China and India was

decided in favour of the latter. Hans-Rudolf Schurter assumed that the Indian mentality would be easier to integrate because of the English legal system and language.

First contacts

However, the first contacts between locals and members of the SCHURTER Group took place on the other side of the planet - in the USA. Bruno Schurter, then managing director of SCHURTER Inc. in Santa Rosa, California, maintained business relations with Asgari Lokhandwala. After his studies, Asgari worked for a company that manufactured power supply units for personal computers. For this purpose, he bought connectors and fuses from SCHURTER Inc. This was the beginning of

the association between the Lokhandwala family and SCHURTER.

The factory buildings of SCHURTER Electronics (India) Pvt. Ltd. in Vadodara, state of Gujarat

First sales office located in Mumbai in 1995

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Commencement of bu-siness activities

Things officially got underway on 1 June 1995. The initial task of the newly founded company, which at that time was owned by the Lokhandwala family, was to introduce products from other SCHURTER Group companies to the Indian market. Four years later, a restructuring and a relocation were on the agenda. A pure sales office with less than 10 m2 of space became a veritable production facility. The Lokhandwala family entered into a joint venture with SCHURTER Holding today's SCHURTER Electronics (India) Pvt. Ltd. based in Gujarat.

5x20 fuses

5x20 fuses are used in huge quantities all over the world. It was no longer possible to produce these fuses in Switzerland at a cost-effective price, so SCHURTER began looking for alternative production locations at an early stage. SCHURTER Electronics (India) became the first multinational company to manufacture this important type of fuse in India. In addition, small parts such as spacers (transipillars) were also manufactured locally.

Injection moulding

More and more, however, the topic of plastic injection moulding gained

importance in Vadodara. Machines from Switzerland and later from China (Shenzhen) were transferred to Gujarat to produce housings for connectors or power entry modules.

Own engineering department

After various certifications (ISO 9001/ISO 14001) and the knowledge of obtaining certificates for self-manufactured products according to UL and VDE, so much know-how has accumulated over the years that SCHURTER Electronics (India) now has its own engineering department with the necessary measuring competences. In particular, appliance connectors are on the agenda here.

The production plant in Vadodara currently employs a good 200 people

Renovation and expansion

Planning and initial work on the "Double The Space" expansion project started at the end of 2018. The project involves doubling the production and storage space to be able to handle the significant increase in production activities. In addition, more space was also needed for administrative matters in the office building.The construction work was not always that easy. On the one hand, production operations and daily business were not to be affected. And on the other hand, an unusually heavy and long monsoon season in 2019 and the COVID 19 pandemic that started shortly afterwards in the following year hampered the construction work. These circumstances delayed the project considerably.

By the end of 2020, however, all external construction work was completed. The entire production and part of the warehouse were relocated to the new premises. Fortunately, this relocation went smoothly and with only minimal production downtime. SCHURTER Electronics (India) is now ready for the next 25 years. About SCHURTER

The SCHURTER Group is a globally successful Swiss family business. With our components ensuring the clean and safe supply of power, input systems for ease of use and sophisticated overall solutions, we impress our customers with agility and excellent product and service quality.

SCHURTER AGWerkhofstrasse 8-126002 LucerneCH-Switzerland+41 41 369 31 11contact.ch@schurter.comschurter.com

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Modern production machinery in the new premises

The Lokhandwala Brothers: Tohid (Executive Director), Azaz (Jt. Managing Director) and Asgari (Managing Director)