In the Spotlight Rachit Garg, CEO and Anoop Kumar Saxena, COO
EXCON 2022 Special
In its maiden appearance at EXCON 2022, Bhagwati Wheels caught the attention of the business visitors with wheels meant for agriculture and EVs.
Rachit says: “Here, we have two new products on display – one, a boom sprayer wheel which we have developed in our laboratory for spraying pesticides over crops. We use virgin rim material for this. The other product is the small EV bike wheel hub motor. And we are in talks with the OEMs for the hub motors. We make it a point to design and develop our products in our plant because we are in alignment with the central government’s Aatma Nirbhar Bharat campaign.”
Anoop shares: “We follow the manufacturing standards strictly and source prescribed types of steel directly from the mills. And we are proud to share that all our manufacturing processes are automated, including bulk welding, shearing and others, and that is why we are able to do serial production. Bhagwati Wheels is capable of supplying products right from the stage of steel to the painted component.”
Rachit adds: “We take pride in the fact that we can work with smaller volumes also because we believe that what is in its nascent stage today by way of a product or business segment, will grow big in the near future. For example, the small e-bike that we are catering hub motors for, we took the shortest time of 45 days in making samples for a customer after getting the specifications from them. So, we are strong because of our dedicated team and our belief that e-bikes have a booming future, more than what we see today. Our customers understand this and hence they feel they can work with us for smaller volumes also.”
Anoop emphasizes: “India is an upcoming market for the EVS, especially the small bike which does not require a license or registration for the users to use. This particular segment is a promising market currently.”
Advantage Bhagwati Wheels
The company has the capacity of producing 1.2 million wheels per annum across the vehicle segments.
Rachit is proud that: “We develop innovative ideas for our customers – whether it is for big or small wheels. We only export but import nothing because we follow 100% localization in sourcing our raw material. Currently, we are more than 60% full in our order book and plans are afoot that are in active pipeline and advanced discussions. All this will keep us busy for the next couple of years. We are also taking steps towards enhancing the capabilities and feasibilities while increasing our operational efficiencies. The idea is to scale up production to 1.4 million wheels per annum from the current figure.”
Cost competency is a factor which Bhagwati Wheels is continuously working towards, while adopting state-of-the-art technology, staying competitive and by delivering quality to the customer.
Plans Ahead
Rachit and his team are looking forward to adding more lines to make technologically- advanced products, while working on value-additions in their core product – wheels. Hence, the management’s decision to invest more funds, time and energy into R&D.
He shares: “We want to grow not just by adding more verticals but also horizontally too. We are planning on developing products in house like electronics, sensors, and other similar ones. Recently, we have begun working on axles too. Now, we want to add more value by taking in technological parts for which we are open to enter JVs with experts.”
Anoop pitches in: “We are now going forward with making EV-relevant products, for example, charging because we want to contribute value-addition to the industry. We are extremely well placed for this as we are a one-stop-shop for all kinds of testing processes and we have all the testing equipment under our roof.”
The management has plans on hiring more people, bringing in expertise wherever relevant, and adding more facilities such as more testing machines, and laboratories.
EXCON Highlight
Anoop says: “Understanding the pulse of the customer, getting to know what he wants, what are his problems – all these indicate to us to come up with innovative solutions for them. It means going back to our R&D, improving our design and concepts, so that we can cater to their various challenges.”
Rachit shares: “Bhagwati Wheels is happy to meet everyone at EXCON for the first time. This is a wonderful exposure to our young brand, our reliable products and EXCON is a great spot to get to know potential customers and products in the market. Post this, our work is cut out for us which is to draw upon all the insights we have received and improve our strategic plans.”
His strategic plans include Bhagwati Wheels’ training its focus on catering to the end customer – right from the mechanic to the OEMs, and EXCON 2022 is the grand confluence where Rachit and his team get to meet them and vice versa for more fruitful work collaborations!