BUS manufacturer Wrightbus is to open a production centre in India as it seeks to drive down costs.
But management at the firm say the move has the potential to actually increase employment at its Ballymena plant.
It comes as the company reports pre-tax profits trebled in 2012 to almost £4 million.
The manufacturer plans to open a new facility in the Madras region of India later this year in partnership with a major European partner already based in the subcontinent.
Wrightbus managing director Mark Nodder said it would help the company compete in the lucrative Indian market while continuing to manufacture higher-grade products in Ballymena for Europe and south-east Asia.
In its latest results, Wrightbus posted £3.85m profits on a turnover of £157m - up from £133m in 2011.
The firm has won several high-value orders in recent years including a contract to supply 600 new London buses over the next three years - each of which cost £325,000 to produce.
The company already sends parts to Singapore and Hong Kong where they have small teams working with local labour to build buses close to their customers.
"We've been working towards a new business opportunity in India now for several years," Mr Nodder told The Irish News.
"We see two sides to the opportunity in India. One is to source materials and components for both our UK bus and our overseas kits at a significantly lower cost than the European supply base can offer us.
"We have a European partner who's based in India and they produce chassis and engines. They manufacture commercial vehicles and trucks.
"We will, together with them produce a range of buses which will begin to emerge in the marketplace before the end of the year.
"We will, much as we do here in Ballymena, be assembling bus bodies on a third party chassis.
"It's an Indian operation that is owned by Wrightbus and has Wrightbus management but local labour and a design of vehicle that is specifically for the Indian market and using mostly Indian materials and components.
"It's the only way we can operate in that marketplace. You couldn't even do a kit from here, it would be too expensive."
Mr Nodder said there was no temptation to move production taking place in Ballymena to India.
"There's a market for an In dian product but there's also a distinct market for a European quality product. What we'd like to do is take advantage of both."
He said such opportunities were being lost to Chinese and Indian companies, adding: "There are parts of the world that we just can't compete in because of our European cost base.
"It's not instead of Ballymena, it's as well as," he added.
"When we set up our kit facilities in Singapore and China, we generated additional jobs in Ballymena, we didn't take jobs away.
"I think that our plant in Ballymena can grow. I think if we can become really competitive in Ballymena both in terms of materials and labour and the way we do things, then there's no reason why we can't grow our output, which is around about 1,000 buses a year to 1,500 buses or even 2,000 buses."
Mr Nodder, who is also president of the Northern Ireland Chamber of Commerce said some of its members could take a leaf from Wrightbus's book as they seek to return to growth following the recession.
Halfway through his tenure during which he said his focus is on increasing confidence, Mr Nodder said firms needed to think differently in order to attract new business.
"We've been trying to en-courage people to take that step, even if it's only hiring one person, even if it's only renting one piece of equipment, even if it's only getting on a trade mission for the first time - do something that you wouldn't otherwise do, he said.
"We think that the only way we'll have a brilliant future is by taking those small steps of growth.
"If we can build a bit of confidence and the will to win, that's half the battle."