Long-term vision to fortify the Sirocco brand
Auto Pins India Ltd. (APIL) is a leading manufacturer of leaf springs with its well-known Sirocco brand. The company, a specialist in delivering top quality and highly reliable leaf springs, is embarking on a massive expansion plan to enhance its presence in the domestic market. The company took part in the ACMA Automechanika exhibition in New Delhi in March with the primary aim of identifying potential distributors for its products.
Talking exclusively to MOTORINDIA at the exhibition, Mr. Ravi Kumar, Vice President – Aftermarket, Auto Pins India Ltd., observed: “We are here at ACMA Automechanika mainly to expand our dealer network domestically. The visitors have showed a lot of interest in our products and we have already appointed some new distributors through meetings here at the show. Also, owing to the strength of the Automechanika brand, we find this show to be a good platform to build our export markets as well.”
APIL had been producing an average of around 450 tonnes every month in FY17 and now aims to reach a monthly average of close to 700 tonnes in the current year. With an installed monthly capacity to produce 3,000 tonnes at its plant in Faridabad, the company is fully ready for the next few years as far as production capacity is concerned.
While FY17 had started in a challenging way for APIL, in line with the fluctuating market conditions, the leaf spring-maker saw a revival of sorts as the year progressed. Buoyed by new policies, systems and an expanding distributor network, the company saw its sales swell by nearly 70 per cent in FY17 and is confident of continuing its strong run in the current fiscal.
Referring to the company’s focus areas and expansion plans, Mr. Madhukar Sharma, Director – Marketing, Auto Pins India Ltd., said: “We find there is a lot of untapped potential in the domestic market and want to exploit the same. We don’t have any presence in the Southern part of India at present, and so that will be one of our main focus regions from this year. We are quite strong in the Northern and Eastern parts of the country and will also look at expanding our presence in the Western region. We have around 20 distributors at present and are targeting more than 100 by the end of this year. As far as exports are concerned, we ship out nearly 60-70 tonnes per month. While our main export markets are Nepal, Dubai and parts of Africa, we are looking at adding customers in the CIS region and further expanding our presence in Africa. We have a clear strategy for exports wherein we would be focusing on quality-driven markets and would not want to go to price-conscious markets.”
As part of its future plans, APIL is moving towards expanding its Faridabad facility and would also be investing in new technologies to attract attention from OEMs. The company also has plans to foray into other product segments such as clutches.