Pininfarina Engineering To Be Shut Down By Mahindra

Pininfarina Engineering Shut Down — Employees protested the move to shut down Pininfarina Engineering

Mahindra is liquidating Pininfarina Engineering as the unit is no longer considered strategic for the development of the Pininfarina Group.

The unit comes under Mahindra’s Italian subsidiary and legendary automotive design house, Pininfarina, which stated that the decision was taken for the simplification of the corporate structure of the group.

Pininfarina Engineering (established in 2018) has incurred losses by up to €150 million (Rs. 1341 crores) after 2 international projects, one each with a Chinese and an Iranian firm, fell through, which has contributed to the current outcome.

Managing Director-designate, Mahindra, Anish Shah is all for exiting loss-making ventures that do not hold strategic importance and the decision is in line with that ideology.

So far, Mahindra has also exited GippsAero (Australia-based small aircraft maker) and Genze (USA-based electric bikemaker). It also has decided to sell the majority stake in SsangYong, its South Korean subsidiary.

It has come to light that in all 138 jobs are on the line due to the decision to liquidate Pininfarina Engineering and Mahindra group has assured that it will support the employees for re-allocation.

Recently, the impacted employees took to the streets at Turin (Italy) to protest the liquidation. They also sent an open letter to the top management at Mahindra and to the Minister of Labour and Social Policies, Italy, Giuliano Poletti, condemning the move.

An agreement has since been reached between Trade unions and Pininfarina to relocate about 70 workers to the parent company and to another Turin-based firm.

It looks like Pininfarina, acquired by Mahindra and Mahindra and Tech Mahindra in 2015, will be unaffected by this move and Mahindra says the design house will continue to focus on its core competencies.