The Varroc Group was cited as an emerging manufacturing giant from Maharashtra by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. How do you view this recognition?
Varroc had its humble beginnings in Maharashtra State in 1990 and it is indeed very encouraging to be cited by the honourable chief minister as an emerging manufacturing giant in a state which houses established global giants such as Tata. This is a very important milestone for our own "Make in India" journey that started 26 years back. Also, it is a humble reminder for us to set standards and lead the path for the many small and medium enterprises that could contribute to the development of the state.
How was the last financial year for you compared? Do you see the market further improving?
FY 2015-16 was a good year for us in terms of growth primarily due to the globalized nature of our business. Growth in the international business was in the healthy double digits, while the domestic business was impacted by the continued sluggishness in the two wheeler market. Our strategy of product and customer portfolio realignment has enabled us to derisk from the downturns as some of our high growth customers in India ensured that we fared better than the market. We continue to maintain double digit growth targets in revenues and margins overall for this year as well.
You have started implementation of Industry 4.0 solutions across all Varroc plants. How important is this?
IT and Internet technologies are changing the way traditional manufacturers have been functioning all over the world. I am proud to share that Varroc is one of the pioneers in making this push into the realm of Industry 4.0 adoption and have partnered with Altizon Systems to implement the solutions across all our plants. Our IoT journey is a part of the digital transformation initiative in Varroc around smart manufacturing. We are trying to connect all parts of the production process
i.e machines, systems, people and products via the internet. Through this small step, we hope to rapidly scale multiple Industrial IoT applications across our plants and be ready for a more competitive environment in the near future in terms of
speed and efficiency.
Last year, Varroc joined hands with Scorpion Automotive of the UK to produce vehicle security systems for the Indian market. What's the progress on that front?
In 2015 we partnered with Scorpion Automotive to design, manufacture and supply security and tracking systems for the India market as we felt that the need for security systems was not appropriately addressed in this market for a long time. We are in various stages of discussions with multiple OEMs for understanding their requirements on these systems after having successfully demonstrated both the tracking and security systems on local bikes. Scorpion Automotive has a little pilot tracking system running on the aftermarket already to get feedback on customer requirements and preferences.
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