LOCAL SOLUTION
Pakar Seating has elected to fulfill recent orders by manufacturing its seats close to the customers
WORDS BY JEAN-JACQUES PRALUS
The Pakar Seating System has been manufactured in China and Malaysia for the past 10 years. In March 2011, Pakar Seating signed a contract with JPSI for the supply and erection of 43,000 seats of Pakar Grandstands for the Buddh International Circuit in India. To avoid the Indian import taxes applicable on steel items (24.5%), Pakar Seating decided to manufacture the main part of the seating system locally. A Pakar team of engineers, technical supervisors, and quality
controller was deployed there from April to September 2011. The main challenge was to understand and to adapt to the Indian way of working. The grandstands were supplied and erected on time. In February 2012, Pakar Seating was selected by Moscow Raceway for the supply and erection of 27,000 seats of grandstands. Once again, Pakar Seating decided to manufacture part of the grandstands locally; the 27,000 bucket seats were made in Russia. The import taxes on plastic items in Russia is 20%.
Local manufacturing has three advantages. The first is that no sea freight is required, leading to shorter delivery times, and potential increases in the cost of freight are avoided. Other advantages are that local import taxes are avoided, and local companies have the chance to participate in an international project. The Pakar team includes people from France, the UK, Malaysia, China, and New Zealand, all of whom understand different cultures and adapt their ways of working accordingly. Pakar stipulates that manufacturing can be relocated to the client’s country only for a minimum of 10,000 seats. In the future, the company’s objective is to offer this new service in the Americas. Transportation there from China takes a long time and is increasingly expensive, and South America has high import taxes. This solution could enable clients to access cost-effective solutions with highquality standards. <
