Sai Baba Fabrication commenced its trailer manufacturing operations in a rented shed on a half acre plot in Seneerkuppam village abutting AH45 national highway on the outskirts of Chennai during 2006.The firm was promoted as a partnership company by trailer veteran Mr.K.Ramesh Charry, well known in the industry circles as Atlas Charry, a company with which he was associated with for about 15 years prior to starting up of the current firm. Today Sai Baba Fabrication has earned a name in the market place as a manufacturer of quality make standard and custom-built automotive trailers; and an impressive product range covering all possible variations in the segment starting from flat bed model to custom-built ODC trailers to meet diverse customer requirements.
“My association with trailers started when I joined Trailers India, Chennai way back in 1980. Before my association with Trailers India, I had gone thro’ various departments in Enfield India and Marshall companies in Chennai – starting from testing to production, quality and purchase. However the very first sight of trailer during my entry into Trailers India brought in me an overwhelming feeling and I decided that this is going to my field for the future; well life has unfolded in the way I had dreamt and the journey in my passionate field is continuing in full steam till date” reminisces Mr. Charry. During early 80’s the competition for Trailers India was limited and with Mahindra Owen in south India; and the marketing exposure gave Mr. Charry the ground realities of business in the segment. After leaving Trailers India and promoting a Trailer unit for a transporter company, Mr. Charry promoted Atlas trailers during 1990.
“I have been involved with manufacturing and supply of over 800 trailers in my association with the companies till 1990 and this gave me immense confidence to promote Atlas Trailers. The venture did extremely well and the company sold over 1000 trailers of various types and capacities for operations with leading prime mover OEMs” points Mr. Charry. He could not gravitate to the next level due to constraints from other directors and decided to venture out and started Sai Baba Fabrication with his wife as a partner during 2006. “It was a turning point for me; though the field and customers were the same and well known to me, the operational freedom really gave me the flexibilities to mould the company in the path of a specialist manufacturer genre within a short period” says Mr. Charry.
The factory area has been expanded recently to one acre and houses all the facilities, plant and machinery associated with a typical heavy fabrication unit like variety of welding machines, gas cutting and profile cutting units, A-frame for lifting etc. The shearing, folding and sundry machining works are sub-contracted and the skilled technicians, assemblers and welders are deployed on contract basis. Mr. Charry apart from steering the company on all fronts plays an active role on the marketing front to leverage the advantages of his wide industry contacts to further business; and engineering/works managed by Mr.R. Haridasan, a seasoned trailer design and production person with over 3 decades experience and who had been with Mr. Charry since his foray into trailers. The company has a total workforce of 22 persons including the executives and an annual turnover of Rs.6 crores.
“Ours is a professionally run manufacturing unit that can be classified in the small sized OEM segment at this juncture. The company has an installed capacity of 10 vehicles per month and with marginal addition of facilities, capacity can be substantially increased. The quantum of order keeps changing and depending upon the workload, we increase the contracting crew strength; and thro’ this approach able to tide over the lean periods. This model has enabled us to retain our special place amongst the prestigious list of customers who have appreciated our commitment to quality, taking up challenging work orders, keeping up to timely deliveries and attending to their diverse service needs” indicates Mr. Charry. Today the company has an impressive product program including Container semi trailer, Terminal trailer, Flat bed trailer, Semi low bed trailer, Well bed trailer, Low bed trailer, Tanker trailer and Custom built ODC trailer. They also undertake LPG Running gear, Car carrier, Cement bulk carrier, Refurbishment of all make trailers and sundry specialised fabrication work for materials handling segment; and can produce trailers with load carrying capacity up to 150 ton in low bed design.
“We have customers from all sections of industry though the transport and logistics remain our main revenue generating segment. Most of the companies in the Logistics segment are our customers. We have also supplied special trailers for L&T, JSW steel, Dodla Engineering, Doosan, Ennore cargo terminal, Kirloskar construction, Shapoorji Pallonji, Public sector companies and Defence sectors. Our trailers with radar mounted on it are going to be provided at leading airports to curtail bird menace issues; and we will be supplying 4 nos. special platform trucks to a Bharat Benz dealer for dozer and other machineries transport in a road project at Arunachal Pradesh. For Krishnapatnam port, we have supplied trailer of 100 ton capacity for container handling and that also is deployed for granite transport at other locations. Vehicle OEMs are aware about capabilities though we do not supply trailers directly to them” refers Mr. Charry.
The standard trailers manufactured by the company are tailor made to suit the individual needs of transport operators and suitable for operation with Ashok Leyland, Tata, AMW, MAN and Bharat Benz tractors. The custom built trailers like low bed and well bed (8/16/24 wheelers) are manufactured to carry specific ODC. These special ODC trailers have been supplied for operation with ALL Hippo and Volvo range of tractors. “We have supplied special trailers for transport of wind mill blades with lengths in excess of 30mt. Our trailers for the application have been appreciated and is reflected in getting repeat orders for such challenging jobs” proudly cites Mr. Charry. “Trailers are designed on the work stations, debated by the engineering team before being taken up for production. Also Trailers are approved by the State Transport Authority in accordance with Motor Vehicle Rules act Invariably to accommodate for the eventual overloading, a malaise and ground reality, the trailers are overdesigned and this is where the real experience comes into play” adds Mr. Charry.
Mr. Haridasan says that most of the times, especially on the transport sector, customers are not sure of the loads they want to handle and indicate an approximate figure. “Let’s say that the trailer is designed for 25 Ton payload as required by customer and we supply it for the application. We can be certain that sooner than later the customer will come rushing back and say that the trailer frame has got bent. Upon closer examination and discussions, he would accept that he routinely handled 25 ton but on one of the return trips, he took up 45 ton load. Now what do we do in such a case for no fault of ours? ; and the blame is conveniently fixed on the manufacturer” quips Mr. Haridasan explaining the typical situation faced by the production dept. The USPs of the company are many, one of which is in supporting the customer right from the enquiry stage to the delivery for site applications. “We do not take up the order with bare minimum specs like loads and lengths. We discuss the application details, visit sites if required and then chalk out the optimal specs in consultation with customer. We buy raw material steel with test certificates and source bought-outs from established suppliers – like York axles and wheel &hub parts of vehicle OEMs so that so that the reliability aspects are ensured and servicing becomes easy at sites. We use folded channel sections and fabricated beams and do not go for rolled section. We use high tensile strength steel starting from SAILMA 350 HI grade to DOMEX 700 to reduce trailer weight and increase payload capacity. The specs are debated with the technical team and then the work order taken up for further processing. I always speak on the side of customers and ensure that the trailer takes substantial overload so that it does not breakdown on road ; flip side of it is all above result in increased costs eroding our wafer thin margin in the order –nevertheless we do it so as to keep up our reputation in the market” explains Mr. Charry.
“The trailer market comprises big, medium, small sized OEMs and the unorganised sector and do not have a body or forum to bring the manufacturers under one roof. Especially for the manufacturers falling under the small and medium segments, such an organisation would ensure establishing some sense of order that is lacking today” opines Mr. Charry. “The big manufacturers essentially the vehicle OEMs have the distinct advantages of volumes, raw material price advantages and supplying trailers with tractors strictly as per GCW specs. Also stocking up of standard trailers at yards which ensures ex-stock delivery and financing schemes to cover tractor-trailer unit as a package have diverted many of the customers to their fold. In our case, especially the small sized OEMs, we supply only the trailer and the customer has to invariably organise for the funding of trailer all by himself. Generally finance options are available only for the prime mover and occasionally for the trailer and that too for only a portion of the cost. This is a big deterrent. However we have seen that the customers who had opted for a fully built unit viz., truck-trailer, invariably come to us within a short period for strengthening of the trailer frame to meet the ground realities. Some of them invariably approach us for their future orders but then we have to live with the situation and co-exist with medium and large players” briefs Mr. Charry.
“The problems from the unorganised sector are very different. Take for example the Namakkal region which has become synonymous with trailers. Herein the material and labour charges are accounted separately to move out of tax net and also there are inadequate norms or standards for the component inputs. Price is their great strength to attract customers in a drove and the trend is similar in other parts of the country too; there are also several roadside trailer manufacturers in the unorganised sector to supply trailers at dirt cheap prices. These cut-throat and unethical practices have ensured that the trailer manufacturing sector never gets the recognition that it richly deserves. However on the optimistic side, things are changing and customers after having seen the trailers supplied by big companies start appreciating the technical content and increasingly moving away from unorganised sector – but we have a long way to go” comments Mr. Charry about the prevalent trailer scenario.
The rampant price war amongst the small and medium sized companies for the share of pie has ensured that many in the field become sick and close down. The steel material estimated during an enquiry and consumed for actual production drastically varies on many occasions due to wastage and scrap generated; and selling below costs often to sustain the operations has spelt doom for many of the companies. It is now dawning upon the manufacturers left in the field that they need to have a forum and work to one another’s advantage—like firming up norms for the type of trailer to be provided viz., light/ medium/ heavy duty for the application, negotiating good prices for sub-assemblies/ bought out components and based on capacities share a big order be it local or exports for mutual benefits. “More importantly it’s a live and let live scenario that is evolving and only with such an approach, we can co-exist in the business with medium and big companies” opines Mr. Charry.
The company had plans to enter into modular trailers and developed the technology and sub-assemblies for a specific application but forced to drop it for lack of clarity from end user association on their deployment for special applications. Mr. Charry speaks with unbridled enthusiasm on varied facets of the trailer industry and wants to genuinely lift up the small sized manufacturers to the next level and seems to have repository of information and feasible solutions. He also follows the international trends closely and in the past had discussed with leading companies in the field including Goldhofer for a collaborative association of modular trailer part fabrication/assembly in India. He is also open to associating with any forward looking company/individual if the same can add impetus to the operations and take it to the next level. He cautions that it is difficult to sustain as a small sized company unless one exercises extreme caution in the business model accepting ground realities.
“Trailer transport is the future in haulage sector and the volumes can increase dramatically with the discernible shift in the customer trends; and India will soon align itself with the worldwide preference in opting the tractor trailer combination for long haul to economise on costs ”summarises Mr. Charry. Well, He keeps reeling out data to support the trend and one hopes that the industry watchers take note of the same. Sai Baba fabrication has been able to retain its niche place amidst all the upheaval in the segment and with the veteran at the helm, develop soon enough momentum to move to the next level. Apart from his above mission, let us hope that the veteran continuing his romance with the trailer segment also succeeds in uniting the many companies under a common forum. This should ensure that the manufacturers especially in the small sized OEMs domain rather than getting relegated as low tech fabrication firms get their due recognition and occupy the rightful slot they richly deserve – as one of the key contributors to the economy in the cogwheel of automotive transport domain.