Harita accent on innovation

Harita Seating Systems Ltd., a leader in the commercial vehicle seating systems in the country, enjoying a good market share in both truck and bus segments, showcased a range of products, including those for city bus applications, to gain visibility among OEMs, STUs and body builders. Harita also came up with a proto concept of a futuristic seating application, which was revealed only to key customers.

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Mr. A. G. Giridharan, President, and Mr. S.Rengarajan, General Manager-Sales, Harita Seating Systems Ltd. (fourth and fifth from left respectively), with their team

“We decided to participate at Busworld this time to get visibility among OEMs, both domestic and global. Displaying our plastic seats would give us a fillip among our customers, especially the STUs. New developments from our side include our bestselling model reclining seats with three-point seat belt integration and calf support mechanism user friendly design and another new model reclining seats with specific features developed particularly for the North, East and Western India markets. We also have a totally new patented seating application which is being showcased only to key customers”, explains Mr. S.Rengarajan, General Manager- Sales & Marketing, Harita Seating Systems Ltd.

Having established a strong position in the market, Harita is now looking at expanding market reach and unrepresented geographies , and improve its market share. Further, Harita is aggressively working towards raising the bar in the Indian seating industry by focusing on advanced concepts similar to those in developed markets like Europe.

“We believe innovation is the key and we need to bring in new concepts attuned to the industry like light weighting, new materials, effective usage of material and advanced processes for seat manufacturing so that India-made seats improve both aesthetics and fit and finish. We have focused mainly on comfort all these years, which is definitely important, but now it is time for us to get into other aspects like new components, features and value-additions like light weighting, cost reduction, modularity, etc.”, he adds.

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Sharing his views, Mr. A. G. Giridharan, President, Harita Seating Systems Ltd., says: “The new proto we have made is a very important development for Harita in terms of leading the way in the industry. As for the event, it has been a very focused show with all our key customers – OEMs, body builders, STUs and fleet operators visiting us. Overall it has been a positive show for us and we feel the decline in the industry has been stemmed. We expect things to get better as we move forward.”