The Bosch Group is adjusting its manufacturing and sourcing strategy to broaden its line-up of auto parts and accessories for Japanese vehicles.

The move is aimed at increasing the German company's business in the Asia-Pacific, which last year contributed ¤6.1 billion (Bt294 billion) to the group's sales. The region also saw the strongest growth, 16 per cent.

"The Asia-Pacific is now the fastest-growing market for Robert Bosch. We also would like to enjoy double-digit growth in this region every year. Our target is to increase the sales proportion in the Asia-Pacific from 15 per cent to 25 per cent in the year 2015," Robert Bosch managing director Paulo Ferreira said yesterday.

He said it was the direction of the Bosch Group for the future to capitalise on growth opportunities outside of Europe, of which the Asia-Pacific, including Thailand, is one of the key focuses.

Thailand has been promoted by the company as a regional hub. Robert Bosch has two factories in Rayong's Amata City Industrial Park, one each for brake systems and diesel parts.

Bosch has 250 factories across the world supplying more than 500,000 car parts and accessories, such as lighting, batteries, ignition leads, brake pads, spark plugs, oxygen sensors, electric fuel pumps, comfort electronics and wiper blades.

Bosch is expanding its automotive-parts product range to cover more Japanese vehicles.

"Almost 90 per cent of the vehicle market in Thailand is dominated by Japanese cars. So to be able to achieve our expansion target, we have to be able to offer the right parts and solutions that can answer the needs of local people," said Ferreira.

"In Thailand, the vehicle market has slowed down a little bit this year. The situation will be not very clear yet next year. We, however, are quite optimistic that with the extensive expansion of our product portfolio, we will manage to grow faster than the market," he said.

Yingyuat Wangprayot, general manager of the vehicle parts department for Robert Bosch, said the company could supply vehicle parts and accessories for the after market covering 50 per cent of the Japanese vehicles on the road.

"We have set an aggressive target for our portfolio expansion to cover almost 90 per cent of Japanese vehicles in three years," he said.

Robert Bosch has 251,000 staff worldwide, of which only 1,000 work in Germany. The company has employed more than 50,000 people in the Asia-Pacific. The group expects its worldwide sales to reach ¤90 billion in 10 years.

The group allocates 9 per cent of its turnover to research and development, in order to bring new product innovations to the market. More than 12 patents are issued to the group each workday.

Kwanchai Rungfapaisarn

The Nation