Bhavya Sharma, General Manager, Export Sales and Marketing, and K Mahesh, Assistant General Manager, Export, QH Talbros share their company’s forward strategy and their expansion plans in Europe. Sarada Vishnubhatla reports.
Presence @ IAA Transportation 2022
Bhavya Sharma, General Manager, Export Sales and Marketing shares: “We, as QH Talbros, started in 1984 and are among the leading suppliers of steering and suspension parts to OEMs and Leading Tier-1s, both in India and overseas. We have a dominant presence in domains across the segments, including agricultural equipment, commercial vehicle , passenger car segments and system suppliers. Our key strength has been established in providing complete design and development solutions as per customer specific requirements. “
K Mahesh, Assistant General Manager, Export says: “IAA Transportation 2022 offers us a huge opportunity to put our best foot forward in the international arena. The platform lends us a unique position to all the major brands in the world. The fact though is that we are dealing with most of them both directly and indirectly already in India. There are more developments that are happening right now, some negotiations too are underway with a few preliminary studies also being undertaken. Additionally, manufacturers have the opportunity to visit us here and see for themselves our capabilities.”
Latest @ QH Talbros
Bhavya Sharma explains: “Technology wise, we are here with our latest product mix in the steering and suspension parts such as tie rods, tow bars, stab links etc which aids in showcasing our wide range of engineering and manufacturing capabilities.”
Mahesh adds: “Today light weighting of the vehicles has become a basic requirement and we are already supplying parts to a big brand in the EU. And sometimes we receive material change as a specific requirement. We take these requirements into account and work on them. In fact, this helps us to expand our capabilities in multiple dimensions while ensuring a reduction in the part sizes and also providing more strength to them. We feel good to go beyond our skills and make these requirements happen for the benefit of our customers.”
In the Indian Context
Bhavya Sharma offers an insight: “There is still a big gap in the kind of vehicles that ply in India as compared to other global economies. For example, a typical heavy vehicle that is used in the US is vastly different from what we see in india. The gap exists in terms of tonnage, technology, quality of the roads and the overall usage of the vehicle. Though gradually the chasm is narrowing, still we have a long way to go. Take tractors, for example, in India. We use 60-70 horsepower tractors, whereas the international tractors are pegged at 140-160 horsepower since they have larger farms. But what is happening is that once we are getting exposed to the international level, we are expected to stick to the most stringent testing methods to be able to deliver the strictest customer requirements. Hence, we are already working towards it by trying to implement these in our own domestic industries. And that is where the real lesson lies. By the time these things come into India, we will already be at the forefront of these demands instead of trying to learn them at that time. This is a big learning curve which we are already ahead of and we are well prepared for the future.”
Putting Best Foot Forward
Bhavya Sharma states: “These trade shows and platforms are a win-win for both the OEMs and we as tier-1 suppliers because all the relevant stakeholders are present in one spot. We get to witness new technologies, and new products that the OEMs are planning for their own and other markets. And it is crucial for them to look up tier-1 suppliers like us to know the technologies that we have come armed with. And that is exactly what we have done here.”