1. Good Afternoon and Welcome to
Mr. Siebert Consul General of Germany in Mumbai,
Mr. Duebet, Dy Director General IGCC,
Mr. Kniffki, Mr. Loesch, Mr. Fankhauser,
Distinguished guests… Media friends…Ladies and gentlemen.
I thank all of you for accepting our invitation, especially those who
come from far away and have travelled for many hours to be
present,to heraldthe arrival of LEONI Cableinto India. Today we have
guests in attendance from all over India, various European and Asian
countries. Opening of this factory is an event full of joy and emotion.
Together with my colleagues from LEONI Germany, Switzerland,
Turkey, Singapore and India,I welcome you for joining us in this
inauguration. What a great pleasure it is to be here with you today.
Nowadays Pune is known as the Oxford of the East, a source of
educated and dedicated employees which has made it a leading centre
for high class engineering companies. To understand how this ethos
was created we have to go back a millennium and study the
background of the historical leaders that shaped the culture of Pune.I
will now briefly touch upon only three such personalities.

2. Gyaneshawarwas born in 1275 AD andwas orphaned at the age of 8. He
begged for alms to survive, faced ostracism andstruggled to educate
himself. He overcame the debilitating circumstances and by the age of
12he hadmastered philosophy.By the age of 15 he wrote his famous
work Dyaneshwari. At the age of 21 and thepeak of his life he attained
Mahasamadhi and gave up his life. His Samadhi is at Alandi which is 18
km from here on the way to Pune.
Tukaramwas born in 1608 AD in a family of merchant farmers of Dehu
near Pune. He helplessly watched his family members die of starvation
in the famines of 1629-31. Hesuffered greatly and lost all his
property.He had no formal education, through his ownefforts,
creativityand geniuswrote about 8,000 poems. Local elite opposed him
and threwhis books into river Indrayani, only 5 kilometers south of
Chakan. He fasted for 13 days and miracle happened – his books
resurfaced intact.He is not only regarded as the greatest Marathi
poetbut also a social reformer. At the age of 41 he sang his farewell
song and vanished. He was never seen again.

3. Third personality is linked to thehistoric eventof 4th Jan 1670. On this
night Shivaji the great Maratha warrior, instructed Tanaji to capture
the Sinhagad fort which is located on South-West of Pune City. Tanaji
tied a rope to amonitor lizardand used it toclimb the vertical cliff walls
and enter the fort. After climbing the walls the return ropes of soldiers
were cut. A do or die battle ensuedandTanaji’s troopsachieved
resounding victory. In the process Tanaji died. He has become the
embodiment ofsupreme sacrifice, selfless bravery and dedicated spirit
that will not give up till the goal is achieved.
These beacons inspired generations of Puneites. It showed that with
determination, dedication and persistence, difficult situations can be
overcome and impossible tasks can be accomplished. This has become
theethos of Pune.
While Pune was evolving its ethos, in 1569 Anthony Fourier who was
making precious metal wiresat Lyon,France was also facing
persecution. He shifted to Nuremberg, Germany and founded his
workshop. By 1621 his sons had founded other workshops including
one in Roth. Three centuries later in 1917 the various offshoot
companies joined together. The next 96 years has been for LEONI
group, an exciting journey of growth and technology development.

4. And today the journey started by Anthony Fourier from Lyonhas
reached Chakan, Pune. And what a great journey it has been!!!
How did we reach here? The present leg of the journey began in
2011,when LEONI group decided to set-up a cable factory in India. The
target markets were Automotive, Oil and Gas, Rolling Stock and Solar.
The activities of that year resulted in decision for 100% LEONI
Greenfield Project at Pune and selection of local Management Team,
With key team joining in early 2012 the activities focused onsite
selection in Pune. About 50 locations were checked and finally made
our choice with Indo-Space Rohan Industrial Park at Chakan. After
intensive negotiationswesigned the agreement on 21stJune which
happened to be the longest day of the year.
Construction began in middle of monsoon the toughest season of the
year………….In just six months, LEONI Cables India has made
phenomenal progress in delivering great success by installing first
extrusion line. Subsequently first samples were produced and sent
forapprovals. We are proud to announce the approvals from VW, Ford,
Daimler etc.I would like to extend my congratulations to our
colleagues and the entire team of dedicated people that made this
possible.

5. In parallel the recruitment and training of staff was going on, most of
the staff has been trained at Europe. On an average they are spending
2-4 weeks to make sure the product quality will be of the same
standard. Team of European experts is regularly visiting to make sure
the process followed is exactly same as that in other factories. The
quality control equipment is calibrated with same masters to ensure
the end results are exactly the same.
Currently from the two extrusion lines we are producing standard
automotive cables. Soon the wire drawing and bunching process will
begin to increase the local content. Plans are on the anvil to add more
extrusion lines and increase the capacity. With LEONI technology we
shall also producelow cross-sections and high temperature cables to
meet the changing demand of automotive customers.
In the next four months machinery installation for the instrumentation
cable will be done. This will enable us to produce the high quality
cables required for critical applicationsinOil & Gas, Petrochemicals,
Power Plants,Process Industry, etc. The customers will get the famous
LEONI ICON range of cables. We are proud to say LEONI Kerpen
products have been accepted by customers like Reliance Petroleum
who have very high quality standards. We are grateful for their
support and patronage.

6. We are planning to export the instrumentation cables to other markets
in Middle East, South East Asia and other parts of the world. Our goal is
to export more than 50% of our output thereby earning foreign
exchange for the country.
The
process
for
securing
permissions
to
install
thehigh
technologyelectron beam acceleratorhas been started.It will enable us
to make the latest generation cables for solar and railway markets.
We are also committed to bring to Indian customers products they
desire – products of reliability, certainty and longevity.
Let me express my sincere gratitude to all of our employees, partners,
media friends, the Indian government and everyone who has given us
valuable support. It is only with your unwavering support that we are
able to unleash our potential and achieve our common goals.
Let us work together to make this venture a great success.