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MOTORINDIA
l September 2012
67
effective and lighter but matches
the performance of steel cage bear-
ing. This explains the company’s
business philosophy and logo ‘De-
signed for Life’.
The new plant, which is being set
up at an outlay of Rs. 10 crores will
be ready for production by the third
quarter of this year. It will have
an overall capacity of 15 million
bearings per annum to be attained
within the first six months of its op-
eration.
A flying start in aftermarket
According to Mr. Hiwale, though
the KCI foray into the automotive
aftermarket business by establish-
ing the marketing headquarters in
Pune is less than two years old, it
has had its flying start in the sense
that the company’s sales revenue in
the aftermarket segment has gone
up from just Rs. 3 crores in the first
six months to Rs. 8.5 crores in one
year. For the current year, the com-
pany is aiming at a Rs. 14-crore
revenue from aftermarket bearing
sales.
In order to serve the growing mar-
ket requirements, KCI has already
introduced 450 different bearings,
including Needle Roller, Taper roll-
er, Clutch and Kingpin bearings. In
order to become closer to custom-
ers, the company has opened offic-
es in different parts of the country.
Currently, with the dedicated mar-
keting team and brand loyalty, the
company has established a wider
network of 120 dealers and stock-
ists all over India, which reach out
to about 5000 retailers directly.
Since the southern States are more
quality conscious, the company had
initially started with aftermarket
sales in south to prove the quality
of the product. After its success in
test marketing its bearings in this
region, KCI expanded the dealer
network and product availability to
cover the other parts of the country.
As a testimony to product quality,
KCI happens to be the only manu-
facturer offering a warranty for its
bearings up to two lakh kilometres
in the aftermarket, a rare practice
among companies. This clearly
brings out the quality-driven tech-
nology of the company, which
also ensures it never compromises
quality to reduce the cost. Of the
planned overall sales revenue, the
OE and aftermarket would account
for 40 per cent each, and exports
for the remaining 20 per cent. The
main export markets for its bearings
are Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangla-
desh, and the company is trying to
expand to other Asian markets such
as Malaysia, Indonesia, as well as
European nations.
The success of aftermarket sales
is mainly attributed to the manage-
ment’s dedicated efforts of grass
root canvassing to generate de-
mand for its products and also by
constantly raising its overseas mar-
ket share. Though known for its
low-profile, conservative approach,
the company is now coming out in
open more aggressively by creating
greater awareness of its products
through participation in different
fairs and exhibitions, to consolidate
its brand image in the market.
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component zone