By R. Natarajan, Managing Editor & Publisher
Wheels India Ltd. of the TVS Group is a leading manufacturer of steel wheels and the market leader for many decades. The other products turned out by the company include air suspension systems and energy equipment parts.
The company registered a 48.3 per cent increase in net profit for the year ended March 31, 2017, at Rs. 59.31 crores as compared to Rs. 39.99 crores registered in the year ended March 31, 2016. Revenues for the year rose by 9.4 per cent to Rs. 2,176 crores from Rs. 1,989 crores registered in the previous year.
In the last financial year, the company was able to maintain a record performance with an excellent growth in sales from its air suspension system division. During the year, it made an all-time high sales of 9,500 fitments of air suspension systems mainly for STUs as against 6,000 units in the previous year.
This was disclosed by Mr. Srivats Ram, Managing Director, Wheels India Ltd., while addressing the annual press conference in Chennai.
He said the commercial vehicle segment remains the core business of the company and almost one-third of the overall revenue comes from this segment. On the export front, the company has been able to do well with an increase in exports of forged aluminium wheels for trucks. As for the company’s investment plan, it keeps maintaining a very cautious approach. However, it continues to bet on innovation and automation in order to increase the overall productivity.
On the future outlook, Mr. Srivats Ram said: “This year, we expect reasonable growth in the car, agricultural tractor and construction equipment segments in India. We expect the CV segment to be sluggish this year given the “pre-buy” prior to the BS-IV changeover.”