Tokyo-headquartered aircraft interiors company JAMCO Interiors on Monday launched its Centre of Excellence in Pune, committing $150 million to expand its India workforce “six-fold” and build the country into a design engineering hub, while also beginning to source components from Indian suppliers.

“We are looking at design technology being transferred to India so that India becomes a design centre for our laboratory products,” said Kate Schaefer, Executive Chair and CEO, JAMCO Interiors. 

JAMCO will also see a similar centre being inaugurated in Bengaluru later this week. A design centre in India would mean back-office engineering support which sends out simple packages of independent design work evolving into engineering and product-development base capable of handling “cradle-to-grave” designing work spanning the original request for quotation (RFQ), product design and development, certification support, and entry into service.

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

The company supplies approximately 50% of the world’s widebody lavatories, including 100% on the Boeing 787 and 777, and approximately 40% of the world’s widebody galleys (kitchen section), including 100% on the Boeing 787, along with 100% “Increased Cabin Efficiency”(ICE) galleys on the Airbus A350. Its portfolio also includes business class seating, branding panels, and window shades. 

The Pune centre 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? The CEO says, “it’s about access to highly educated engineers that is hard to do in Japan, and hard to do in the U.S. at the moment, as well.”

JAMCO is also keen to start sourcing components for its structures. The move will help it to “de-risk a very Japan-centred supply base”, as well as find partners in the Indian supply ecosystem to serve the growing market in India and across the globe, 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 JAMCO’s acquisition by Bain Capital in 2025.

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