Bengaluru:  LAPP GROUP, the Germany headquartered global connectivity solutions provider organized the 7th season of “Stuttgart meets Mumbai” on the February 04 and 05 at ITC Maratha. The landmark annual Wine- Festival is organized in celebration of over 40 year long and enduring partnership between the sister cities of Stuttgart and Mumbai.

Stuttgart the state capital of Baden-Württemberg, Germany is surrounded by amazing vineyards that produce prize-winning wines and as a token of appreciation and good regards for India, Chairman of The Board LAPP HOLDINGS AG., Mr. Andreas Lapp who is also the Honorary Consul of Republic of India since 2001 initiated this signature event six years ago. Over 1000 bottles of wine is especially flown down from Germany for this event to present the citizens of Mumbai with a true German flavour of love and friendship. Reiterating this Mr. Andreas Lapp, stated, “Wine sharing is part of our culture and by bringing home-grown wine we want to foster closer ties between India and German cultures. This year’s event is very special for us as the ‘year 2011-2012 is the year of Germany and India’ heralding 60 momentous years of diplomatic relations”. Further expressing his fondness and commitment to the country at this occasion he said that, “India has always been very close to Germany for multiple reasons from common Indo-German languages to Bollywood movies and we wish to cement this further by growing the economic relations as well”.

Building on Mr. Andreas’s vision the Managing Director of LAPP INDIA Pvt. Ltd, Mr. Srinivas P Kamisetty made a strategic announcement about the organizations expansion plans, he said, “India’s economic environment is very conducive for growth and instrumental in making LAPP INDIA Pvt. Ltd. the third largest operations base for the parent company garnering 30% year-o-year growth which is expected to double during the next fiscal year. It is in light of this and the management’s dedication to the country that we will be expanding our footprint by starting a new plant in Bhopal region that will attract a cumulative investment of over 1,000 million INR in the next couple of years.”

Focused on deepening this existing relationship the wine-fest brought together people from politics, across industries and cultural domains. Some of the other programs organized at this event were- jewellery workshop on modern German jewellery and design culture, tourism workshops and educational forums, entertainment program; Stuttgart specialities buffet; wine tasting with experts from Stuttgart accompanied by typical Swabian music.

Noting this extraordinary extravaganza of goodwill, Mr. Dr. Leopold-Theodor Heldmann, General Consul of Republic of Germany stated, “If India and Germany continue to leverage on each other’s potentials as they currently are, the future will be very promising and may aid the countries in becoming very important economic players.”

Mr. Bernhard Steinrücke, Director General Indo-German Chamber of Commerce commended LAPP GROUP’s proactive involvement in bolstering relations between the nations and conferring that, “LAPP GROUP is not only a leading electrical connectivity solutions provider, but the foremost social connector interlinking cultures as well.”

Some other socio-cultural activities initiated to further enhance relations between India and Baden-Württemberg is the foundation of the Indian Business Centre Stuttgart at the LAPP Group premises in Stuttgart that provides fully furnished offices, technical infrastructure and expert advice, the centre aims to make it easier for Indian companies to locate in Baden-Württemberg.

The LAPP Group is also the principal sponsor of “Bollywood and Beyond” Indian film festival in Stuttgart.