Guru Ram Dass (GRD) Body Builders is a leading builder of bus bodies for travel and tourist operators in North India. The company has evolved over the last three and a half decades and has come up with contemporary bus models such as its recently launched ‘G-Wings’ with classy design and excellent overall bus body structure.
GRD, which will be building its next-generation models at its state-of-the-art facility at Bahalgarh in Sonipat, expects to roll-out 30 buses every month, though the impending GST move might result in a hike in cost of the bus for its customers.
Mr. Mayank Kukreja, CEO, GRD Body Builders, shares details on what GST could mean for his company and the bus body sector as a whole and also on why he feels the future of independent bus body builders remains bright over the long-term.
Excerpts:
FY17 performance highlights
It was very hard to get the business back on track after demonetization but thanks to our planning we were stable and business is now fully back on track. Our customers are very happy with our products and on-time delivery. In FY17, our biggest milestone was getting our new plant at Sonipat to full steam. We are currently making prototypes and samples at the facility which has a production capacity of 100 buses per month and will start rolling-out buses from it soon.
Company plans for FY18
Our plan is to make 30 buses per month from our new facility in this financial year. We are working on a new model with an all-new design and specification and will be launching the same by around October this year.
Impact of GST on bus industry
GST is a single tax system which is good for the bus industry as well as the automobile sector on the whole, though its high tax value of 28% will impact the business. Since it’s a single tax system, there is very less documentation and reduced paper work but again, there will be CGST, SGST & IGST documentation, apart from monthly filing of taxes online which will be quite a lot of work for everyone doing business. Due to GST, our end cost to the customer will increases by Rs. 1 lakh per bus and as of now, our customers are not ready for such a hike and are expecting a taxation of 12 per cent on all products.
Future of independent bus body builders
With regard to working with OEMs, many companies have approached us for collaboration, and have even visited our Sonipat plant. We have also received orders from an Ashok Leyland dealer from Nepal but we are still waiting for the right lead to form partnerships with OEMs.
Independent bus body builders can also grow with consistent stability in terms of product quality, on-time delivery, meeting customer demands, though the fact that there are very many types of bus specifications which makes it quite challenging to work in this field. OEM’s may have the capability to build bus bodies on a large scale but may not be able offer too many different varieties and specifications. This is a key reason for the OEMs to turn to medium-scale bus body builders, in order to be able to fulfil customer requirements, and this is why we believe in the growth of independent body builders in our country.