Ford Business Solutions (FBS) India, the global capability center (GCC) arm of automotive major Ford Motor, has launched a new centre in Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu. This is the company’s third centre in India after large operations in Chennai and a smaller centre in Bengaluru that it opened recently.
The 800-seat centre in Coimbatore will predominantly house the company’s accounting, financing (Ford Credit) and other business operations.
Speaking to businessline, Gangapriya Chakraverti, India Site Head and Managing Director, Ford Business Solutions said that the office is being built as a business continuity hub designed to ensure critical operations continue in case the company’s primary GCC in Chennai is disrupted.
“We earlier operated a centre in Coimbatore, which we closed during the COVID pandemic. We have had positive experience with the local talent pool here especially in terms of quality and the range of talent across commercial, operational and engineering operations,” she said. Beyond backup operations, some accounting teams will actually be led out of Coimbatore, she added.
Keerthana Sampath, Hon’ble Minister for Industries, Investment Promotion & Commerce, Government of Tamil Nadu, lights the ceremonial lamp at the inauguration of Ford Business Solutions’ new Coimbatore center.
The Coimbatore facility occupies three floors of SVB Tech Park and spans over 82,000 square feet. The workspace has been designed to support collaborative and hybrid working, with more than 230 workstations per floor, meeting rooms, focus rooms, booth seats and pantries.
“There is a lot of change that is happening within Ford with a lot of new systems being put in place, particularly in the accounting and Ford Credit teams that are going to be significant operators from Coimbatore. So, we have to assess how that impacts our workforce and whether it will reflect in higher numbers here,” Chakraverti said.
Though Ford currently has no intent to expand the centre’s scope into engineering or technology teams, she did not rule out the possibility given the strong automotive ecosystem and availability of good engineering talent in Coimbatore.
As for its wider India operations, Chakraverti suggests that the largest talent demand remains in areas like software engineering, data science and data analytics. “Though it is early to quantify the impact of it on the headcount, we have been making significant investments in AI globally and are actively training our employees to become fluent in AI tools,” she said.
Keerthana Sampath, Minister of Industries, Investment Promotion & Commerce, Government of Tamil Nadu, said in a statement that Ford’s decision to open this center in Coimbatore is a strong endorsement of Tamil Nadu’s standing as a destination for global capability and knowledge-based industries.
“Ford Business Solutions has been a committed partner to Tamil Nadu for over 25 years, and this expansion to Coimbatore is a further mark of that enduring trust. We welcome this expansion and the opportunities it creates for the people of Coimbatore and Tamil Nadu,” she added.