Here’s a home-grown firm that has been catering to OEMs in Europe & USA since over a decade. Manesar-based firm Climax Overseas has built its business over the last 45 years with a strong focus on export markets. As indicated in its name, the company makes over 85 per cent of its revenue from overseas markets, supplying rubber components, oil seals, and suspension bushings apart from other products to leading manufacturers of trucks, trailers, truck axles, trailer axles and suspensions, among others.
Climax participated in IAA for the third time last year, in an effort to deepen its relationship with existing customers and also expand its customer base in Europe where it already has very strong presence. Says Mr. Parmeet Singh Sood, Managing Director, Climax Overseas Pvt. Ltd.: “50 per cent of our total business comes from Europe where we majorly supply truck and trailer components. We supply under chassis parts to almost all major trailer axle manufacturers in Europe and also work with truck makers like MAN, DAF and others. The US market contributes another 30 per cent to our revenues, with only around 15 per cent revenue coming from the domestic market.”
Climax has focused on the export markets since the early 1990s, a strategy that has paid off handsomely given the kind of success the company has seen in the last couple of decades. “We started exporting to Europe back in 1991 when we were a very small company. In India, the quality levels are still not as high as in Europe. We have come a long way in terms of our technology and infrastructure and became a TS certified company in 2002, perhaps one of the first auto component companies in the country to do so. Everyone has to carve his own niche, we found less competition in this segment and have grown 10 times over the last 10 years”, shares Mr. Sood.
Climax is currently in discussions with Tata Motors on delivering components as a Tier-I supplier and plans to step up focus on the OEM space domestically. As a Tier-II vendor is a single source for oil seals and dual source of bushings for York Transport, the country’s market leader in trailer axles. Given its plans to expand its business locally, Climax is looking to double its revenues from the domestic market to 30 per cent in the coming years.
On the aftermarket side, Climax has some interesting developments underway. The Managing Director reveals: “We have started marketing products under our own CMX brand. We have over 70 distributors country-wide and will be reaching 100 soon. We are targeting the SAARC countries and are growing rapidly by providing aftermarket parts for Tata Motors and Ashok Leyland light, medium and heavy CVs.”
In an effort to move up the value chain, Climax has developed air springs in-house and has already bagged a major order for the same. “We started offering air-springs in the aftermarket around two years ago. Today, we are probably the first Indian company to have a air spring qualified with a European trailer axle OEM. We are starting with about 50,000 units per year with a ramp up to around 200,000 units annually in 3 to 5 years”, he states.
Climax Overseas will be closing the current FY with a turnover of around Rs. 80 crores. It also has a global outfit in the US called CMX North America and another in China from where products are exported to the South American and African markets, thus making CMX a $20 million group globally.