Brakes India to set up unit in Uttaranchal

Brakes India, the 51:49 joint venture between the TVS group and TRW, will commission two new manufacturing facilities this fiscal. While the first will be set up in Uttaranchal which is on its way to becoming one of the most important auto clusters of the country, a decision on the second plant will be taken soon. “Our idea is to get closer to our customers so that problems relating to hassles due to logistics are minimized,” Badri Vijayaraghavan, executive director, told Autocar Professional.

The investments for these plants will be finalised in the near future. Construction will begin in three months and the Uttaranchal project is scheduled to be operational by March next year. It will initially kick off operations as an assembly plant since full-fledged manufacturing would be difficult without a vendor base. Once this is in place, value-added activities can be thought of.

Vijayaraghavan said that Brakes India was looking at expanding its Gurgaon facility. Last November, it set up an assembly plant in Pune bringing the tally to seven. The company is now making investments for capacity expansion this fiscal. Brakes India is the market leader in passenger cars, utility-vehicles and commercial vehicles. In the case of two-wheelers, it hopes to grab 25 percent of the disc brake market in three years.

The company has recently begun a foray into three-wheelers, where it still needs to make a big mark, and small four-wheelers. The Tata Ace, which is a part of this segment, has been doing good numbers. Brakes India is already a major player in this small four-wheeler category and is expected to show stronger growth here. On the export front, the company is well established in Japan, the US and Europe. Vijayaraghavan said that it would soon look at other emerging markets too.

Continuous improvement programmes are the mainstay of Brakes India. It offers complete solutions to its customers in design, development, testing and validation. Most OEMs seek its involvement from the concept stage while developing new products. Brakes India also has a full-fledged R&D facility manned by 125 engineers. It is also planning to set up its own test track about 100 km from Chennai and is seeking counsel from a foreign agency on its construction as per international standards.

Large fleet operators are pleased with the company’s electromagnetic retarder which assures substantial fuel savings and longer tyre life. About 50 retarders are made every month and capacity will be doubled soon. A leading commercial vehicle manufacturer has recently validated the electromagnetic retarder for a particular bus model as an OE fitment. Others could follow suit in good time.

Brakes India is beefing up its service network exclusively for its retarders to give more focused attention to users. It has developed a prototype of electromagnetic retarders for light commercial vehicles which will be sent for field trials soon.