Jay Shah, MD, Tungaloy India, explains how they are poised to handle India’s evolving demand for new-age cutting tools.
How big is India as a market and what is your current share of the market in the country?
The current Indian market should be close to around Rs 3,000 crore, while our share of the market is currently 6%, which mainly comes from the automobile and two-wheeler segment, which constitute around 50% of our market share. Other segments including general engineering, defence & aerospace, medical, power, food industry etc., contribute to a certain level.
When we started in 2010, the company turnover was only Rs 9 crore. After IMC took over and brought in new technology and products, we have begun to grow at a rapid pace. From a team of only seven people, we now have a team of 93 people across India, with close to 100 distributors working under us.
We are working towards Mission 200 crore. So far, we have reached Rs 150 crore, and are hopeful that in the next year or so, we should cross the Rs 200 crore target that we have set.
What are some of the crucial points on which Tungaloy India offers stiff competition to both its organised and unorganised sector competitors?
Tungaloy spends well on its metallurgies. Hence, the basic metal that we use to make the carbide mixture is our strength. With IMC on board, the latest technologies required for new kinds of tools, has been shared with us. So it’s a lethal combination of extremely good technology and one of the strongest metallurgical powders, which works in our favour. As a result, we are catering to the organised sector players, directly or through our distributors. Our distributors cater to all segments, right from OEMs to the middle segment, and even a low segment. Thus, we’ve segmented the market in such a way that we have a distributor catering to each possible segment.
How is the TungForce range of products performing in India? What are your plans to introduce new technologies or product innovations in India?
TungForce was introduced because we saw a big change coming to India. Customers are more educated, and choosing to buy and invest in expensive machines. As a result, they now require high-quality tools to make optimum use of their machines. That is how the TungForce frontline was launched two years back, and it currently contributes around 25-30% of our sales. In fact, all the old products have been phased out and replaced with these new products, keeping in mind what India is aiming at now in terms of making faster and better. The TungForce range is specifically suited for that.
Are you also working with the Government, especially on the defence front?
Yes, we’re working with HAL, ordinance factories, and even PSUs like SAIL. Defence is on top of the Government’s agenda, further driven by the Make in India scheme. Thus, a lot of new projects are coming up, and we’re working on most of these projects. L1 is the biggest challenge that we have in this segment. While they are investing in good machines, they request for the cheapest possible inserts, which is possibly the biggest laggard in the working scenario. Despite this, we want to focus on providing solutions rather than competing on pricing, as we believe that the price does not matter once a solution is made available.
Quality and precision in your business has to be impeccable. How does an organisation such as yours ensure quality through all your processes?
As far as manufacturing is concerned, we are blessed that quality is maintained by the Japanese, so the product quality is the best possible. In addition, manpower is trained dedicatedly every year, both in India and Japan, to make sure that they provide the right service and value to their customers. The third important part is to ensure product delivery on time. For this, we have considerable stock stored at our warehouse in Mumbai, and also with our distributors, thus ensuring that the customer can immediately have the product delivered once they place an order. In essence, from the production to sales, we try to make sure that the critical path of quality and service is maintained.