Ace Car Tech Pvt. Ltd. entered the garage equipment trade in 2002, offering a complete range of solutions for automotive workshops and body shops. Being just a trading company since inception, it has forayed into manufacturing with the development of an electric wheel nut runner for commercial vehicles and a turn table for displaying passenger cars at showrooms and dealerships.
Says Mr. Manoj C. Vithalani, Managing Director, Ace Car Tech Pvt. Ltd.: “We have indigenously developed an electric wheel nut runner for commercial vehicles and a turn-table which can be used in dealer outlets, car showrooms and airport displays. Our systems match competitor products in terms of quality but come at very competitive prices because of the localized parts. Most parts of our nut runner are sourced from vendors in Mumbai, and we will start making them ourselves once the volume picks up. Our product costs nearly half the price of those which are currently used in CV workshops as they are imported from Europe.”
Ace Car Tech’s product range covers vehicle lifts, tyre service equipment, collision repair systems, welding equipment, paint booths and pneumatic tools. With the new nut-runner and turn table, the company has begun its transition from being a trading outfit to becoming a manufacturing-only firm in the next few years.
“We currently source two-posts, wheel balancers, wheel aligners, tyre changers and other equipment from different markets such as China, Italy and the US. We are planning to move away from trading mainly due to the price war and focus on in-house manufacturing. Over the next few years, we will have 3 to 4 manufactured products and no trading activity and are targeting a sales share of 70 to 75 per cent from exports. We will look for dealers/distributors in overseas markets to take care of the sales and service of our products in their respective region”, Mr. Vithalani explains.
Ace Car Tech clocked a turnover of nearly Rs. 10 crores in FY15, maintaining its sales over the last couple of years. While 90 per cent of its sales comes from equipment for the passenger car segment at present, the two new products manufactured in-house are expected to contribute up to 50 per cent of its turnover from the current year. Of this, half will be from exports. The company expects an 8-10 per cent growth in turnover this year, mainly driven by its two new products.