Duroshox to focus on seating suspensions

Pune-based seating suspension maker to keep riding motorcycles for growth, also plans to dig deeper into the 100cc mass commuter segment, says Amit Panday.

Suspension assembly manufacturer, Duroshox plans to concentrate on its area of expertise and will not enter into new business verticals. Its current product portfolio comprises suspension systems ranging from applications for two- and three-wheelers to seating systems for trucks and buses, tractors as well as some industrial applications. The suspension systems along with the bunch of components used in CVs account for nearly 70 percent of Duroshox's revenues while shock and gas absorbers make up for 10 to 15 percent.

Managing director AnshulGoel told Autocar Professional that “We supply our assembly products and sub-modules such as seat frames, armrest assembly, seat slides, seat adjusters, and seating suspensions to seat makers who then supply directly to OEMs. We plan to expand into areas that we excel in rather than entering into new business verticals.” "Duroshox plans to increasingly focus on its core expertise because in India, seating systems in CVs never came equipped with comfortable suspension systems. First initiated in passenger buses, I see the trucking industry as next in line to be equipped with the modern, comfortable seating systems. The suspensions and associated components for seating systems have wider applications in the trucking, off-highway, construction equipment, material handling and farm equipment industries.” The company, which exports around 80 percent of its product portfolio, recently bagged an Engineering Export Promotion Council award for being the highest exporter of thrust products (seating suspensions) in 2011-12 in the medium enterprise category. It exports nearly 200,000 units of seating suspensions per annum; these are used by companies like Caterpillar, Bobcat, John Deere and Johnson Controls across the US, Germany, Italy, UK and China.



Bike to the future
Goel discloses that “though the 125cc and 150cc bike segments look exciting, we plan to keep our focus on the 100cc segment as the market is huge and offers lucrative opportunities.” Duroshox currently supplies shock absorbers to Mahindra 2-Wheelers and a couple of electric two-wheeler manufacturers in India. It makes over 25 types of shock absorbers for two-wheeler application, all designed and developed at its in-house R&D centre. Pointing out the importance of the company's R&D efforts, Goel says, "Ours is a 25-member strong team (total staffing is 350 employees) and we allocate around 3.5 percent of total sales to R&D. We plan to increase these investments up to five percent of total sales per annum. We also plan to allocate around 10-15 percent of our turnover on capacity expansion.” Duroshox has two manufacturing facilities in Pune – one dedicated to suspension systems and associated components used in seating systems. The shock absorbers used in two-and three-wheelers along with gas springs are manufactured at the second plant. The company has a production capacity of over 350,000 units of the high seating suspension systems, over 200,000 units of seat frames, and over 600,000 units of slides. “Seating slide capacity will be increased to 1.5 million units in two years,” reveals Goyal. The firm has maintained an overall capacity utilisation rate of around 60 percent in order to keep room for new business orders.

Formed in 1987, the mid-sized company has been growing at 23 to 30 percent year-on-year in recent years. For the 2012-13 fiscal, Duroshox posted a turnover of nearly Rs 63 crore. “With our current growth and foreseeable prospects, we will be able to achieve a turnover of Rs 100 crore within the calendar year 2014 (2014-15 fiscal),” signs off Goel.