Lines up new products, aggressively expands service network
‘SAE-SMB is committed to the Indian market for the long run’ – the message was quite clear during our recent interactions with Mr. Michele Panuccio, COO (Asia-Pacific), ADR Group, and Director, ADR Axles India, and Mr. Vishnu Jadhav, Head – Sales, ADR Axles India. SAE-SMB, is part of ADR Group and is the brand specifically dedicated to road axles applications. ADR started production of SAE-SMB products in India in its manufacturing facility at Pirangut in Pune in September last year and within just 12 months, has started planning for its second facility in the country.
Mr. Vishnu Jadhav, Head – Sales, ADR Axles India, with their colleague
Says Mr. Michele Panuccio: “SAE-SMB has a very good future in India because the potential market is huge, we are doing good work with our dedicated team by offering excellent products at a competitive price.”
“We established our Indian company in 2016, started production in 2017 and now we are already discussing about expanding our capacity.”
“The ADR Group has appointed in India an Italian Plant Director, Mr. Giulio Segneri, and decided to further invest by opening an additional facility to meet the requirements of our customers.”
“We plan to open the new plant in a year’s time. We are doing this because we believe in India.” he added.
ADR Group firmly believes in being close to the customer, as seen from its vast manufacturing footprint across the globe, with 12 facilities spread across Italy, France, the UK, Poland, China, Brazil, Canada, Spain, Australia and India. The Italian supplier has made a head-start in India and has no plans of slowing down its pace of growth in the region.
“The Indian market is changing – infrastructure is improving very fast, better and more number of trucks are running on roads. We cannot wait for too long because the market is ready and growing very fast. We might make mistakes as we grow but we do not want to wait and miss out on the opportunity. We need to keep improving and, in that context, the most important aspect is for us to respond to our customers whenever they call for us which is why we have already created a network of more than 40 service centres across the country and have set a target to reach 100 by the middle of 2019”, explains Mr. Panuccio.
Mr. Vishnu Jadhav adds: “Our major strength is our ability to respond quickly to our customers. We have established a strong service network and have made our spare parts available across the country. We have customers who have been buying our products since 2017 and are placing repeat orders with us which goes to show they are happy not just with our product but with their overall partnership with SAE-SMB.”
Highlighting the company’s intent on adding value to customers, the COO remarks: “It would have been very easy for us to bring a product similar to our competitor’s, with exactly the same spare parts but then we would not be adding any value to our customer and will have to fight on price. Instead, we decided to focus on the long-term, invest in developing a good product, establish our brand with our design and quality and add meaningful value to our customers.”
Having secured the critical service aspect of the business for now, SAE-SMB plans to take its service support to a whole new level in the near future. The company plans to introduce axles with an in-built chip using which customers could order spare parts just by using a mobile app. “We are currently exploring the market for this technology and are planning to start customer trials next year”, says Mr. Jadhav.
SAE-SMB currently makes trailer axles and mechanical suspensions of capacity 13-ton to 16-ton in its Pirangut facility. The company is exploring the possibility of introducing new products next year that would be a major upgrade on the technology front.
“Our next product generation will bring superior technology and will enable our customers to carry more payload using their existing vehicles”, shares the Sales Head.
SAE-SMB is also launching a new website dedicated to the Asian market, www.sae-smb.asia, which will present its full range of products developed for Asia, especially India and will be an additional support for customers to select the correct product for their application.