JAMCO inaugurates Center of Excellence in Pune

Dignitaries at the inauguration

Tokyo-based JAMCO Interiors launched its center of excellence in Pune on Monday, committing $150 million to expand its workforce in India “six-fold” and build the country into a hub for design engineering, while also starting to source components from Indian suppliers.

“We are looking at transferring design technology to India to make India a design hub for our lab products,” said Kate Schaefer, Executive Chairman and CEO of JAMCO Interiors.

JAMCO will also see a similar center inaugurated in Bengaluru later this week. A design center in India would mean a back-office technical support that sends out simple packages of independent design work evolving into an engineering and product development base capable of handling “cradle-to-grave” design work including initial request for quotation (RFQ), product design and development, certification support and commissioning.

This growth will be supported by an increase in the engineering workforce from 100 to 500 over the next two to five years.

The company supplies approximately 50% of the global wide-body lavatories, including 100% for the Boeing 787 and 777, and approximately 40% of the global wide-body galleys (galley), including 100% for the Boeing 787, along with 100% of the “Increased Airbus” A3(sgal) Efficacy Cabin. Its portfolio also includes business class seats, branded panels and window shades.

The Pune center has already received technology transfer for the design and development of aircraft galleys and is expected to acquire similar capabilities for lavatories in the near future.

So why India? Says the CEO: “It’s about getting access to highly educated engineers, which is hard to do in Japan and hard to do in the U.S. right now.”

JAMCO is also interested in starting to source components for its structures. The move will help it “de-risk a very Japan-centric supplier base” as well as find partners in the Indian supplier ecosystem to serve the growing market in India and globally, says Sanjeev Sen, chief operating officer. The initiative will also help diversify the supplier base across the three companies Jamco has acquired in Germany, Italy and the US since Bain Capital’s acquisition of JAMCO in 2025.

(The author was in Pune at the invitation of JAMCO)

Published – 22 Jun 2026 23:17 IST