Automotive News - May 6, 2019 - Retail - 18

18 * MAY 6, 2019

CEO making global moves with Auria Solutions

uria Solutions was formed in
2017 as a joint venture between interior specialists
IAC Group and China's
Shanghai Shenda Co. to supply fiber-based soft trim and noise suppression products.
Auria has its financial headquarters in Coleshill, England, and operational headquarters in Southfield,
Mich. Already the No. 2 player in its
segment after Autoneum, according
to Auria's figures, the supplier in
February opened a plant in Vrable,
Slovakia, about 12 miles east of key
customer Jaguar Land Rover's factory in Nitra.
Auria CEO Brian Pour, 48, was previously IAC's COO after an eight-year

stint in Shanghai as IAC's
vice president for North Asia.
He spoke with Automotive
News Europe Correspondent
Nick Gibbs about industry
trends and explained why
the company focuses on premium automakers. Here are
edited excerpts.

have a significant presence
in the U.K. We don't have
plans to change that.

&
QA

Brexit doesn't put a
crimp in the plans?
Brexit puts a crimp in everyone's plans, no matter
what industry you are in.
Certainly it's something we
are concerned about, and
we are very active in our
contingency planning.

Q: Auria is jointly owned
by a U.S. and a Chinese
company. Why is it
BRIAN
headquartered in the
POUR
What's coming next for
U.K.?
A: Because that's what made most product?
sense from a legal entity structure at
We have a new acoustical product
that time. There were benefits from for premium automakers that will
corporate tax laws in the U.K. We also arrive over the next 12 to 18 months.

It is driving a significant amount of
investment on our part. Dashboard
insulators for the front firewall that
combine a number of different processes to block and absorb the noise.
How much revenue does Auria
get from China?
Our revenue only represents consolidated sales. It doesn't show unconsolidated sales from our China
joint venture with one of Shenda's
other companies that consolidates
under Shenda. That represents just
south of $200 million a year in turnover from five facilities.
Europe accounts for 45 percent
of Auria's revenue. What per-

centage of that comes from
premium automakers?
The majority. It has been a good position for us. At the same time, the premium segment is less dramatically impacted by economic fluctuation.
What do automakers want Auria
to focus on?
The big push is the move to autonomous, connectivity and electrification. With that comes a very different
portfolio of products. For electrification it's the ability to drive down internal noise, reduce weight and also
maintain battery temperatures.
With our fiber-based products,
thermal management becomes very
important. For mobility, we are aggressively working on flooring that
addresses the need for durability in
ride-share applications. As we get to
autonomous, automakers want the
interior to be more like a living room,
so you will see many of the concepts
with what looks like a hardwood
floor or even a tile floor. We've developed a product that we are able to
weave a printable screen onto the fiber-based construction.
Will the electric vehicle segment
be a big revenue generator?
We completed an extensive [noise,
vibration and harshness] study on EVs
in the market and found a number of
areas where we could help our customers, because of the different sources and types of noise. It actually drove
our price per vehicle point about 15
percent to 18 percent higher, and that
was just on pure volume, not on the
cost of the product.
Is that playing out?
Yes, as we work on these EV platforms, we're seeing a lot more of the
things we saw in our benchmarked
study.
IAC grew through acquisition.
Will Auria grow the same way?
With the global market the way it is
and the EU significantly softening, our
approach is to sit back and watch.
Adding capacity in an overcapacity industry is certainly not our plan. Yes, we
are adding capacity at our new plant in
Vrable, but we are adding it to support
our customer, Jaguar Land Rover, in
Nitra. Our strategy focus in Europe is
on product portfolio expansion and
vertical integration.
Is Vrable just for JLR?
It's not the first time I have followed
JLR. When they first went to China, I
put in two facilities while at IAC to support them. Given the size of the components we make, they need to be relatively close for just-in-time sequencing. It was a strategic investment to
support a key automaker, but we do
have other customers in the region.
Auria is supplying the Land
Rover Discovery. What other
JLR vehicles will Vrable supply?
We have a contract for a second vehicle that they will be bringing. (Pour
declined to identify what it will be.)
JLR has announced deep cost
cuts. Does that affect Auria?
As with all customers, productivity
requirements are discussed and negotiated every year. How far they are
going to push cost saving into the
supply base, in addition to their own
savings, is yet to be seen. m

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