New plant in Gujarat coming up
Tenneco’s complete portfolio of axle, cabin and seat suspension applications and elastomers for heavy duty and light commercial vehicles are designed to provide enhanced ride performance, comfort and optimized vehicle life while helping reduce fleet operating costs. The global manufacturer has its presence in India for almost two decades. In 2006, Tenneco Automotive India, a 100 per cent subsidiary of Tenneco U.S., was established in India with regional offices in Gurgaon, Kolkata, Pune and Hosur to support the aftermarket.
In an exclusive interview to MOTORINDIA in New Delhi recently, Mr. Pankaj Kapoor, Deputy Managing Director, Tenneco Automotive India Pvt. Ltd., spoke about the company’s Indian presence and its leadership in the market. He said: “We are in the global aftermarket for the past 50 years. Our Monroe brand goes back to almost 90 years. It is one of the most prominent brands in all the established markets. Almost 95 per cent of the market is being covered by us. In India, we have stabilised our brand in the past nine years. We are leading suppliers to OEs in the passenger car segment. Tenneco’s products cover almost 90 per cent of the vehicle models in the aftermarket segment. The quality we offer in India for our products is the same as we delivered in the rest of the world, but at a much localised price.”
World-class facilities
Tenneco India has world class manufacturing facilities at Bawal, Hosur and Puducherry to produce ride performance products. The company’s clean air products are made at its Pune and Chennai facilities. These facilities serve a growing customer base that includes Tata Motors, Mahindra, Maruti Suzuki, Renault-Nissan, Ford, Volkswagen, TVS Motor Company, Toyota Kirloskar Motor and General Motors.
Answering a point on the localisation percentage of the products, Mr. Kapoor said: “We manufacture most of our products in-house. Localisation of these products is almost 90 per cent which will be increased to 95 per cent going forward. We are able to offer a ‘bouquet’ to our customer in terms of coverage, technology and competitive price. Our position in the market stands testimony for our brand acceptance. Our company has opened five new Monroe shops in the past 18 months, in Mumbai, the NCR region, Hyderabad, Guwahati and in Siliguri.”
The company’s facilities in India support domestic and international vehicle manufacturers, and are integrated with Tenneco’s worldwide manufacturing and engineering resources, which is increasingly important as customers launch global platforms that include India-produced vehicles.
India as an export hub
With the quality of products manufactured in India meeting up international standards, Tenneco’s Indian subsidiary also exports its shock absorbers to a number of clients globally. “We are exporting to the US and to the neighbouring countries. This is an area we are looking forward to. Exports are a major growth area for us right now”, he said.
Referring to Tenneco’s participantation in the recently held ACMA Automechanika New Delhi, Mr. Kapoor who looks visibly contented said: “This show provides great coverage to all our global aftermarket brands. As the market is slowly reviving, this is the right time for such shows. We are very optimistic that this will bring us good results.”
Building brand image
A lot of effort has been taken by Tenneco India’s aftermarket team to enhance the brand image of its products. The company has launched a new online catalogue for its customers to enable online shopping. “On the OE front, we possess a market share of almost 40 per cent in the passenger car segment. As far as commercial vehicle is concerned, our share has been steadily increasing. Aftermarket has always been our forte. We are among the top two players in this segment. We are also coming up with a green field assembly plant for clean air products in Gujarat.
Bawal plant visit
Tenneco India’s Bawal plant in Haryana was established in 2008. Built over an area of six acres, this plant has the capacity to produce six million shocks in a year.
During a recent visit to this plant the MOTORINDIA team had an opportunity to meet Mr. Narender Gaba, Plant Head, and hear more about the plant. He said: “Tenneco is now the largest supplier of struts and shocks to passenger cars in India. Our main customer to whom we cater from this plant is Maruti Suzuki. We also supply to Club Car of the US. About 8-10 per cent of the products manufactured here are for the aftermarket. We have been supplying struts and shocks for Ashok Leyland and now are single source suppliers of cabin dampeners to Daimler India.”
The Bawal manufacturing facility consists of machineries globally designed and a few of them imported from Europe and the US. “We have our own Tenneco Manufacturing Systems (TMS) in line to the TPS of other companies. Our safety norms are at par with other global plants. This plant employs almost 500 people, mostly diploma holders. Our attrition rate is as low as 10 per cent. Our utilisation level at present is 3.5 million per annum. The sale from the Bawal plant has now grown four-fold. In 2-3 years’ time we are confident that we will be able to reach 100 per cent production capacity”, concluded Mr. Narender Gaba.