Recently, leading truck application manufacturer A.A. Trailers was honored and recognized by the Ministry of MSME and Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas for supplying high quality trailers in the country. The company has been able to carve its own niche with unique offerings across various products like flat-bed trailers, skeletal trailers, side-wall trailers, bomb cart trailers for port applications and hydraulic steerable multi-axle trailers. Rajesh Rajgor caught up with Ranjan Pahadsingh, Chief Executive Officer, A.A. Trailers, to know more about recent developments at the company.
Excerpts:
How has the current financial year been for A.A. Trailers?
Fiscal year 2019-20 was full of challenges, especially the last part of Q3 which was due to the upcoming transition from BS-IV to BS-VI. The industry struggled a bit due to non-availability of prime movers. A.A. Trailers subjugated in supply of trailers and running gears for various application from Q1 to Q3 and got a market share of almost 40 per cent pan-India and 75 per cent in Maharashtra.
What is the CAGR your company is growing at and what would you attribute this growth to?
We have been growing at a rate of 38.86% over the last three years. This growth can definitely be attributed to our high-end engineering design for customized applications, top-notch quality product, value engineering which guarantees our trailers’ extremely good performance with utmost customer satisfaction.
Have you added any new products to your portfolio?
We have added light weight trailers and tip-trailers with 100 per cent fabrication in high strength steel. These have helped reduce the total weight of the trailer by close to 830 kgs. We are also in phase of R&D for developing four more entirely different products in order to meet the demand of the domestic market as well export markets.
How would you benefit from the recent Government notification to implement the trailer code?
A.A. Trailers has already benefitted from the trailer code notification as there were many unorganized players working in the market. We being a responsible organization are spreading awareness to small and big transporters along with the State Governments and RTOs about the advantages of implementation of the trailer code.
We expect that the Government would expedite the implementation of the trailer code in all States as soon as possible which will help for the industry and society as far as safety is concerned. At the same time, the Central Government is also serious about the implementation of the trailer code pan-India. Some of the States are still not aware of or are reluctant in implementing the trailer code. We hope this would change soon.
What are your USPs that you think are taking you ahead of competition in the trailer industry in India?
We as A.A. Trailers have managed to achieve orders thanks to our advanced engineered product, high quality, service and by fulfilling our commitment to our customers. Our skilled team continuously puts in efforts in NPD (new product development), R&D and value engineering in order to ensure we deliver high quality products with prompt aftersales service, all of which are powering us towards becoming the market leader in the trailer industry in the country.
What are your medium- to long-term plans and growth targets?
Our mid-term plan is to capture a major market share in Rajasthan and the South and East regions which would enable us achieve an overall market share of 45 to 52 per cent by 2021. Our long-term plan is to establish our footprint in Middle East and Europe as we start to focus seriously on export markets.