Southco, the US-based multinational, has positioned itself as a access control hardware and positioning technology product company. It displayed at its Busworld India debut its complete creations of what it calls ‘touch points’ between the application and the user, which ultimately determine the user’s perception of the overall quality and likability of a vehicle, e.g., locks, latches, captive fasteners, hinges, handles, glove box latches, friction hinges for central consoles, arm rests, head rests, storage bins, interior and exterior storage compartments and other innovative products.
“These products are engineered to meet the needs of the truck and bus industries. We are working with a lot of Indian automotive companies and for them the touch points are the biggest issue. Whether it is a commercial vehicle or non-commercial vehicle, a simple application like a latch that belongs to us the fit and options on how they function are many, but we help to specify the best option for the program.”, said, Mr. Prakash T. John, General Manager, Southco India Pvt. Ltd.
“For example, we started with conventional mechanical latches and have now gotten into electrical latching systems, remote latching sensors, smart sensing latching systems, etc. We offer products like camlocks, latches, captive screws and compression latches. In fact, we were the first company in the world to come up with the compression latch technology. Our sound technical back-up from the US and the UK and experience from the bus markets like Brazil have helped us apply the same in India,” beamed Mr. Prakash.
Foothold in India
Southco India started its operations in 2008. “In the last 10 years, the quality of ‘touch points’ as well as of the aesthetically appealing products have gone up. This has its great impact on the quality products like latches, hinges and fastening points that Southco offers. We had a tremendous growth at a CAGR of 25 per cent. With the growing demand for premium coaches, there is a higher level of acceptance for superior features by the aspirational middle class of India. Intercity travel has grown exponentially and passengers are willing to pay for a better experience. It will further grow in the next 5 years and we are geared up to meet the OE demands,” revealed Mr. John.
“Southco has got design, engineering, testing & validation and customer service technical support, direct sales approach in India. We can design as per customer requirement based on the dimension, load condition, rugged road conditions, banking on our global know-how,” he added.
India is the second biggest market for buses, and given the huge market size, Southco, with its 25,000+ products in 14 different categories, can provide all the highly engineered accessories that the OEMs require to enhance the features in their vehicles.