Sai Baba Fabrication is a well-known name in the Indian trailer market, thanks to its quality range of standard and customized trailers for a wide range of applications. Though the company is going through a challenging phase in the market, it hopes the introduction of a path-breaking product in the Indian market would give it a much-needed boost in business in the coming fiscal. Mr. K. Ramesh Charry, Founder, Sai Baba Fabrication, gives an update on the current business scenario and the exiting new product in its pipeline.
Excerpts:
2016 review
The beginning of 2016 was good with the market taking off quite well. But the movement of trailers slowly decreased as the container movement from harbor to various destinations started reducing. Above all, after the demonetization move in November, there was hardly any requirement and the trend continued till January 2017.
The October-December 2016 quarter was quite poor due to the above mentioned reasons and also due to issues related to vehicle resale value. The demand for trailers is there but unhealthy competition prevails with some competitors under-quoting prices to stay afloat without keeping in mind the quality of the trailers.
Impact of Trailer Code
The impact of Trailer Code on the trailer market has not been understood properly by the logistics and other transport companies. The trailers being manufactured by us and others were approved for design by STA in Chennai. But this has now stopped and we have been asked us to apply for ARAI approval. Much light has not been thrown on the subject matter by the authorities and we understand that a manufacturer has to spend at least Rs. 12-15 lakhs for obtaining the type approval from ARAI. This particular matter is not clear for us and we are not in a position to receive STA approval for the new type of trailers/orders and also new models of tractors introduced by the OEMs.
Major plans for current year
We are happy to inform that we are shortly going to introduce trailers with walking floor systems which are currently not available in India. The project is under development and we expect to launch our first demo vehicle in the next 2-3 months’ time. These trailers with walking floor systems can be used for unloading materials like RDF, coal, sand and others wherein presently tip-trailers are being used.
Sales & financial targets
In FY17, so far we have sold only 35 units and hope to sell another 20 to 25 units by the end of the fiscal. Much is expected from our new product introduction and we shall fix our targets for FY18 accordingly.