To design and manufacture coaches and buses for Swedish partner
MG Group, India’s largest privately-owned bus building company, once again took centre-stage at one of the largest bus exhibitions in the country, announcing its partnership with Scania India, a move that reiterates its commitment to world-class bus & coach building, in line with a similar partnership it had signed with German major MAN a couple of years back. Under the new partnership, MG Group will be responsible for designing and production of coaches and buses for Scania India, with the first product to be rolled out by January 2018.
The announcement was made in the presence of the Union Minister for Road Transport, Highways and Shipping, Mr. Nitin Gadkari, and the senior management of the two companies.
Mr. Mikael Benje, Managing Director, Scania India, said: “India is a fast evolving market and Scania’s strategy in India is to stay at the forefront of the bus and coach industry with new and sustainable product offerings in keeping with the current market dynamics. MG Group, a leading and established bus body building company, fits well into the Scania strategy giving us the required bandwidth, speed and flexibility for us to achieve our business objectives. We look forward to this association which we are sure will ultimately benefit our customers and the market as a whole”.
Mr. Anil M. Kamat, Managing Director, MG Group, observed: “MG Group has been at the forefront of introducing new designs and products in the Indian bus industry. In sync with our vision to be the largest bus building company in India, we are pleased and honoured to partner with the globally renowned commercial vehicle giant, Scania. Through this partnership with Scania, we look forward to the opportunity of building world-class coaches and buses for the dynamically evolving Indian market.”
MG Group has demonstrated an unmatched penchant for perfection with constant innovation and reinvention for more than two decades. The company’s professional approach has enabled it to tread a new path and carve a niche for itself in the bus and coach building space.
Following the big announcement, we caught up with Mr. Anil M. Kamat to find out what the Scania partnership means for his company and what more is in store from the MG stable.
Excerpts:
Congratulations on your new partnership with Scania. What went behind this partnership?
Three years ago, we planned our entry into the premium segment through our flagship product ‘Mammoth’ in co-operation with MAN. It was soon after Bus World, 2016 that Scania approached us for a co-operation. We agreed right away and everything moved forward very rapidly. We had the Swedish team visit our premise. They audited the facilities and the processes we are following. There was a massive stress on engineering and development capabilities from our side which was highly appreciated and recognized by Scania. The scope of work in our co-operation is such that MG shall design, develop and mass produce Scania sleeper coaches on a 14.8 metre platform exclusively, in addition to a few more products that we will disclose at a later stage. As an external body builder, we will have the exclusivity. The mass production of Scania buses will start in January 2018. These will be co branded products and the intellectual property rights will be with MG.
Elaborate on Scania’s role on the whole partnership please?
Scania will supply their world class buggy chassis which will be used by us for manufacturing. Scania’s role will be very big in our cooperation wherein the entire sales and marketing of our products will be their responsibility. They will generate the orders and be the face for the customers, while we execute the orders. Scania is the founder and needless to say, the back bone of our Cooperation.
What’s the update on the Colombus since the last time we met?
Since we last unveiled, we have fine-tuned the vehicle even more and now we are going to be testing, validating and homologating the product. By Jan-Feb 2018 we should be able to market the product. We might also begin with the global markets sooner as it may not require the Indian homologation. We sure have lots of Enquiries already from the domestic market.
What’s your take on GST on the bus body building industry?
Considering there are four slabs and since buses being a means of mass transportation, the urgent need of India, the 28% GST slab is too high. Seeing the need and importance of public transport as one of the key elements of our country’s infrastructure, our industry should have been placed at the max, in the 18% slab, if not lower. Having said that, the good part about GST is that it is the same for everybody in our industry and there is no differentiation. I am happy about the level-playing field. A lot of red tape get cuts out and we have got one system to follow.
How is Mammoth in terms of sales since the launch?
We are still producing the Mammoth primarily for exports. As far as the domestic market is concerned, we are about to hand over the first four coaches to Southern India’s highly reputed KPN Travels. There is something else also on the Mammoth front that is exciting and coming up but we are unable to disclose at this moment.
You seem to be quite hands-full in terms of work at the moment; any new projects in the pipeline?
We have decided to make Colombus electric which will be a big project at MG. There is also more on Mammoth that you will see in the next Busworld. We will also have our MG Scania products ready by then. There are also some developments on our side for electric buses again in cooperation with a global company. We are also in serious talks with Daimler who have already audited our plants and certified us as their authorized bus building company. Internally, we are completely reworking our manufacturing strategy. Our Belgaum based company that was known as Alma Motors Pvt. Ltd is changed to MG Automotive Bus and Coach Pvt Ltd. It reaffirms that we are committed to the coach business.
You mean the plants that you have built are being expanded too?
Yes, precisely. The plant that we had built for Mammoth (Unit 2) is going to get converted and expanded to produce the economy range of products for our existing esteemed clients. Our Unit 1, wherein we were earlier making economy range of buses is going to get converted into a manufacturing plant for premium buses and coaches. The economy range ones will continue to be produced in the batch production system whereas the premium buses and coaches will have to be produced in a line production system, which is going to be a massive change and challenge at our end.
At Zaheerabad as well, we will be expanding infrastructure to cater to new products of biggest esteemed customer, Mahindra as well as cater to other accounts which are in the pipeline. We are also setting up a world class facility at MG Composites which includes a state of the art manufacturing plant as well as a ‘center of excellence’ for R&D and we hope the complete and inaugurate the same by end of Quarter 2, this fiscal year. We are looking to get into the advanced composites space very seriously. The new setup will also continue to manufacture the bus parts along with our new state-of-the-art technology in Composites. Our bus electronics division, MG Grey Engine has caught on steam and products are beginning to roll out into the market. Our recent order of MSRTC buses will have MG Grey Engine products. Our products are already being fitted in Daimler buses being produced in Chennai.
We also see the Shiv Shahi for MSRTC on display. How is the business from the STUs shaping up?
STUs who have been generally traditional and conservative in their thinking are also thinking out of the box now. The change in the approach, we believe is because of changing public demand and the growing awareness of comfort and safety. MSRTC selected the design which we were offering, they are extremely happy. We also hope to enter KSRTC very soon. A lot of interest is being shown by STUs for better designed products. We have put in enormous marketing efforts in the past one year to participate in the STU business. Considering Andhra, Telangana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra comprise of nearly 60% of India’s STU sales, we are very strategically located to cater to their orders. We hope to double our turnover to Rs. 500 crores by the end of next fiscal. For that, our entire ecosystem is being worked upon. We are building the team to handle new tasks and believe that these changes will happen by December 2017.
How has been the first edition of Prawaas 2017 for MG Group?
Prawaas has turned out to be way over expectations, considering this was the inaugural edition. All credits go to BOCI, it’s Leadership and the organizers, they have done a wonderful job with this event. We see footfalls from people of North Eastern States as well as Southern States. People from across the country have witnessed the show and this gives a good mileage to showcase our product line and be recognized as an important Bus and Coach manufacturer in front of all the stakeholders from across the country. Also, very importantly, Prawaas 2017 has been a big hit for MG Group to be able to showcase our capabilities to our Honourable Union Minister, Shri Nitin Gadkari, Honourable State Transport Minister, Shri Diwakar Raote and many other VVIPs linked with the transport industry.