Indo Silicon in Chinese alliance

Delhi-based Indo Silicon Electronics plans to set up a manufacturing plant in collaboration with AZ (Shanghai) Co of China for audio and video car entertainment systems. It had shelved its original proposal of establishing a joint venture company here to sell Global Positioning Systems (GPS) for lack of proper mapping data.

The new venture will see the commissioning of a plant in Manesar near Delhi and involve a staggered investment of Rs 100 crore across five years. The company, AZ India, will manufacture car and home entertainment systems under the brand name Auzo. At present, the company imports these products from Shanghai and sells them through its distribution network.

The LCD systems are already part of the inline production of the Rhino sport utility vehicle manufactured by International Cars and Motors. HS Chadha, director, Indo Silicon says that talks are on with Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Motors and Toyota Kirloskar to becoming a general accessory supplier for their passenger vehicles. An approval will allow Auzo products to be sold as part of general accessories in all dealer networks of these companies. The $700 million AZ employs 2,000 people in Shanghai and does contract manufacturing for some of the big names in the industry.

“We sell a range of products for homes as well as the automobile industry. Touch screens, LCD, radios, DVDs, in-dash monitors, double din monitors etc are being sold through our network across India. This is being done to create greater awareness of our products,” Chadha says. His aim is to promote Auzo products in a big way and setting up a manufacturing unit will only make OEMs confident of the product and the company. He has fixed a revenue target of Rs 40 crore from Auzo products this fiscal of which the auto industry will account for 80 percent.

A major importer of car accessories in India, Indo Silicon operates through a network of around 80 distributors and 850 dealers. Headquartered in Delhi, it has regional offices in Mumbai, Bangalore and Kolkata. Items imported and sold through the company include car security systems under the brand name Silicon, high heat resistance films for cars, Silicon car audio systems, Auzo car audio systems, NT1 gear locks, Necvox video systems for cars, Formula 1 car care products and Flexline auto body mouldings.

Indo Silicon will also enter the home entertainment sector in a big way “With our four regional offices and 27 service centre staff, we are ready for this diversification,” he said. The main focus, though, will be Auzo products that include car audio and video entertainment systems as well as home products. Auzo products that include simple head units to VCD and DVD players cost in the range of Rs 2500 to Rs 50,000 in the market while power amplifiers are in the Rs 500 to Rs 3000 bracket.

Indo Silicon products for homes include a range of LCD televisions from 17” to 42” priced anything between Rs 29,999 and Rs 99,000. Compared to global brands like LG and Samsung, these are less expensive and are accompanied by a free DVD. “As far as our range is concerned, we are right on top but ours is still not a strong brand. While the A category brands include JVC, Sony and Pioneer, Auzo brand falls in B category,” Chadha readily admits.