It has been about 33 years since Harish K. Sheth has been building Setco Automotive Ltd. And it has been time invested quite well because Setco has emerged to be the largest manufacturer of clutches for Medium and Heavy commercial vehicles in India.

"Yes, nine out of ten clutches sold in India (in the OEM segment) comes from Setco," he tells us with pride. In fact, his guesstimate is that even in the aftermarket segment, Setco could have a healthy market leading share of about 40 percent.

Now the aim is to be the preferred clutch of choice in the international market as well. "Our aim is to sell at least one out of every three clutches sold in the commercial vehicles segment and one out of five clutches sold in the farm tractor segment globally," Sheth says. Indeed, Setco is an excellent example of what a focussed Indian auto component manufacturer is capable of doing.

Established in May 1982, Setco today employs more than 1,200 people globally. It is a Tier I supplier of clutches to all the prominent Indian commercial vehicle manufacturers such as Tata Motors, Bharat Benz, Ashok Leyland, Man India, Mahindra & Mahindra, Volvo - Eicher Commercial Vehicles and Asia Motor Works amongst others. Setco has all the required global quality certifications such as TS 16949, ISO 14001, OSHAS 18001 and VDA 6.3.

While it has four manufacturing facilities - two in India and one each in UK and US - almost 90 percent of actual production happens in India. Its key manufacturing base is in Kalol, Gujarat, and the other Indian facility in Sitarganj, Uttarakhand, is also growing rapidly.

One of the key reasons why Setco has reached its current stature is the Company's strong focus on innovation based on market understanding. "Today, we have even developed products for international markets. Our advanced R&D centre at Kalol built with an investment of Rs25 crore is certified by the Indian Government's Department of Scientific and Industrial Research to design, develop and validate full clutch systems," Sheth shares.

Setco also has a research and development centre in UK. "In fact, our two R&D units work on a collaborative platform developing products that address our customers' demands and requirements. At present, we are spending about one to one and half percent of our sales on R&D and are planning to take it to about four percent in the next two to three years. Our R&D provides us a competitive edge in terms of quality, cost, testing, design & technology of the company's products - and time cycles for each," he adds.

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