Company Description: Paracoat
Products Limited (PCP) is India’s leading manufacturer in total NVH reduction
components for use in the automotive industry. The Gurgaon-headquartered firm
is all set to roll out motor home cum office car in July 2012. With an initial investment of 10-15 crore,
the company will produce PCP Terra in association with Van Tech of Japan and
Siam Motorhome Co of Thailand.
PCP Terra is suitable
for family or a group journey of seven people (including the driver). It has a
luxurious interior design, and the living/ meeting area can be adjusted to a
bed room with the capacity of five people. It is fitted with all required
facilities like air conditioner, heater, refrigerator, microwave, wash-room,
shower, shelves, drawers for kitchen utensils, stereo and multimedia system
(TV, Radio, DVD player, MP3 player). It has a display to monitor the level of
fresh water and wastewater as well. It has a reverse camera to assist the
driver to drive reverse with a monitor on the front console.
What made you float the
concept of PCP Terra Motor Home? Were you inspired by the popularity of similar
products abroad?
To a certain extent, I would say, yes, we have been
inspired. The PCP Terra is a motor home-cum-office, based on a standard pick-up
vehicle i.e. Mahindra Genio. It is installed with frame made of fibreglass
(FRP) with resistance to road worthy conditions. We have seen such concepts in
other countries. Earlier, India didn’t have good roads and it was not feasible
for us to drive those vehicles. But in the last four-five years, the road
infrastructure has improved. So we understood that there is a requirement for
such vehicles. Moreover, PCP has been providing the best in terms of quality
and innovation for some decades now. So bringing in PCP Terra was not a drastic
shift but futuristic as we had the right associations in terms of design,
manufacturing, OEMs, marketing, etc. That’s why we initiated this concept.
Coming back to PCP Terra Motor
Home, what would be its price? Where will it be rolled out and what would be
its monthly production?
We are looking to price it in the range of Rs.31-37 lakh, ex-showroom
India. Currently, we are planning to do the assembly operations in the northern
part of the country. We are in the midst of fulfilling certain legal
formalities. From July’12- March’13, we are looking to roll out 90 units. The
vehicle will be roughly 40pc localised.
How will you differentiate between
the civilian and military markets for your products?
In the civilian segment, what we are doing is we are
evaluating the market survey on this. We have appointed feedback ventures for
doing a market survey for us. The results have been quite aggressive. As far as
the defence segment is concerned, certain packages like bulletproof tyres,
glasses, etc can be incorporated in the vehicle. Or there could be certain
satellite equipment for surveillance purposes.
When it comes to civilian use,
who is your target group? Will it make inroads into the tourism sector or high
networth individual sector?
For the civilian market, we have divided it into 5-6
sub-segments. The primary segment would be the tour operators. Then there are
carleasing firms, entertainment industry, high networth individuals, corporates
etc. We are also serving companies which run projects with a distance of
100-150km from their central offices. Then we would also be catering to
political parties.
The product looks made to
order, so is there a standard size and dimension that you would offer?
Yes, it is completely a standard size and dimension that
we are offering. The only customisation
would be the change in upholstery, or the change in the colours of the veneers
used inside.
Could you please talk about
your future plans and the products you will be rolling out?
The first one is the Terra which I have already talked
about. The second one is the ‘Towing away Caravan’ which can be just fixed on
to the vehicle and can be carried around.
How are you planning to market
such products? Besides, do you think that the Indian civilian segment is ready
to use your products considering the inadequate infrastructure and facilities
available here?
As far as our marketing exercises are concerned, in the
first stage we are setting up our own showrooms in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore,
and Kolkata. These will be our four company-owned showrooms where we would be
displaying our vehicles. As far as the country’s infrastructure is concerned,
we have a back up plan to come up with Caravan parks wherein our customers can
park it (Caravan) in the evening and stay in the hotel.
Any plans to tie up with an
OEM to make your kind of products? What about exports to neighbouring
countries?
Currently we are using the Mahindra Genio platform and we
have sent one product to Thailand for tooling and die-ing purposes. We had an
initial discussion with Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M) wherein they have
agreed to tweak the engine power and also the shock absorbers of the vehicle.
As far as exports are concerned, we have got a couple of enquiries from Nepal.
We have not explored any other markets.
What was the response to the
vehicle that you demonstrated at the Defexpo 2012? Did you get any response from
any government / military official?
At the Defexpo, we got a couple of good leads. We have
people from the prospective planning (first step for putting up anything in the
Indian army) in the defence sector visiting our stall and showing a lot of
interest in our vehicle. We also got one lead from the police forces. With the
amount of fitments and other comfort provided in our vehicle, the forces are
considering this to be an ideal PCR vans.
Will your company be looking
at diversifying? Or perhaps modifying bigger vehicles on bigger platforms?
Yes, we do have
plans to bring in new concept vehicles in India, which include bigger
ambulances, bigger caravans, Our collaborators in Japan has got a design
bearing two bedrooms and a living room in a bus. So those things are in the
pipeline. But they all will be launched after the PCP Terra Home’s roll out.