Manatec, leading Asian manufacturer of garage equipment, displayed its wide product portfolio, including the country’s first indigenous multi-axle wheel aligner for heavy commercial vehicles, the Jumbo 9000 at the show. Also on display was its range of wheel balancers for trucks & buses and body shop equipment, all of which received good response during the show similar to the feedback they have drawn in the market.
Says Mr. Kalaiichelvan Mananathan, Managing Director, Manatec Electronics Pvt. Ltd.: “The Auto Expo this year has given us good mileage and has provided a good launch platform for our products. Though the CV industry is currently going through a slowdown, it has not affected us much since modernisation of CV workshops & Truck tyre outlets is on the rise which has helped us maintain sales despite the tough market conditions. Today, most of the CV workshops in the country have understood the requirement of alignment and balancing machines. There are many truck service centres and workshops of which hardly 25 per cent have taken to modernisation, which reaffirms that there is huge growth scope for our products.”
Backed by decades of expertise in the field, combined with its local manufacturing footprint, Manatec has been a renowned brand in the domestic market for long. The new wheel aligners and wheel balancers have already gained the acceptance of leading vehicle makers in the country. “We are already in advanced talks with major OEMs including Ashok Leyland, TATA, Eicher Motors and AMW, to name a few, for our new wheel aligners which are indigenously made and are highly cost-effective”, says Mr. S. Vijayaragavan, Director – Domestic Business, Manatec Electronics Pvt. Ltd.
The new multi-axle vehicle wheel aligner Jumbo 9000 provides a cost-effective solution to customers. Equipped with world-class technology and features, the equipment is very competitively priced owing to its local production, with the company aiming to sell over 200 units in the domestic market in the coming year.
Apart from its strong local presence, Manatec is known for its worldwide export operations as well. The fact that its products are in demand in over 50 countries across the globe, reflects the global quality involved in their design and manufacture. “On the export front, we have dispatched the first five units of the Jumbo 9000 to Vietnam and Poland and all our overseas distributors are very happy with the new product. We are stepping up our efforts in promoting and marketing this product and expect it to perform very well with good growth in the next three to five years”, adds Mr. Mananathan.
With radialization catching up in the truck and bus segments in India, the tyre cost would account to over 10 per cent of transporters’ total operating costs, which further stresses the need for proper tyre care and maintenance. In addition to wheel aligners and wheel balancers, Manatec also manufacturers two-post lifts (TPLs), gas analysers, smoke meters, head lamp aligners and digital tire inflators, at its Pondicherry facility.