JOPP and LUMAX Decide on Strategic Cooperation

Picture caption: Lumax-Group: Deepak Jain (Managing Director) JOPP Group: Martin Büchs (Managing Director)


Bad Neustadt automotive supplier JOPP and the LUMAX Group from India have decided to enter into a strategic cooperation. Both companies signed an agreement in the Indian capital Delhi to found a joint venture for the Indian market. To this end JOPP will contribute its expertise on gearshift systems which will enable LUMAX to supply complete gearshift solutions to Indian customers. JOPP is one of the few suppliers worldwide which develops both technically demanding solutions for shift levers and also shift towers which the automotive industry assembles in vehicles and/or transmissions.

Martin Büchs, Managing Director at JOPP, commented: “We have been watching the Indian market for many years and have also been able to gain some experience through our exports to India. Due to the economic growth in India and people who are therefore more and more able to amass a certain wealth and become the new middle class, we see an increasing need for more complex technological solutions which we already supply to our European customers. Since such products have to be manufactured locally, we have decided to cooperate with an already established Indian supplier.”

Last year JOPP took an innovation into serial production for the first time which includes both plastic as a lightweight component and also integrated sensors in order to detect the gear positions so that the vehicle engine can be switched off automatically when the vehicle is stationary. This saves fuel and therefore also reduces emissions. Richard Diem who is the Managing Director responsible for powertrain solutions, among other things, added: “The use of both lightweight plastic and sensors requires maximum precision and specialist knowledge not least due to the very demanding conditions of modern transmissions. The employees in our company have proven that we can develop such innovative solutions which have a high value for our customers. It is therefore logical that we now go to where the market will probably grow in the next few years.”

The Indian market is strategically important so that JOPP can continue to grow with its established gearshift products. The new joint venture which will supply customers in India only will benefit from JOPP contributing its expertise in product development while LUMAX has knowledge of the local market. Like JOPP, LUMAX is a family run business which has 9000 employees at 28 different locations spread across the Indian subcontinent.