Company Description: Established
in 1978, ARO Equipments today is a leading automobile equipment manufacturer
and supplier with its manufacturing facility and corporate office located at
Gurgaon, Haryana. It has an extensive
countrywide sales and service network spread across 40+ locations in
India. ARO is an ISO 9001:2008 certified
company and has been in automobile service equipment industry for more than 30
years. The company has more than 200 products in their range to cater to HCV,
LCV, cars and other kind of vehicles. The product range covers tyre service,
engine diagnostics, lube service, electrical service, AC maintenance, tools and
lifting equipment.
Can you please run us through the genesis
of the company? And could you also specify your product lines?
The company was started in 1978 as a
hand tools retailer by my father O. P. Malik. We have generally been at the
forefront of bringing in new technologies for the automotive market. When
Maruti came in, we were the first ones to provide items like timing lights and
tachometer which were not known before and were not available in the market
earlier. As the Indian automotive industry progressed, we started bringing in
new technologies to our customers. We were the first ones to bring the tyre
care equipment to the domestic market way back in 1989 when people were really
not aware of what wheel balancing or wheel alignment is. We started our
association with one of the leading firms called Corghi SpA and have been their
distributors since 1989. In the automotive equipment industry in India, this
has been one of the longest running partnerships.We are proud to state that
this is one of the longest running associations between a European firm and an
Indian garage equipment seller.
What has been the response to your
products at the Automechanika’13 held in India?
As you are aware, Automechanika is
one of the leading platforms for the automotive industry for equipments,
suppliers, accessories and so on. In India too, we feel that the Automechanika
will be one of the key exhibitions for the Indian automotive industry in the
future. And that’s why we decided to be the lead sponsor for the maiden event
in India. Being a show which is just taking off, we would still say the
response was ok. And we will be
participating in such shows in the future too. We are also gearing up to
participate at the Auto Expo’14 (at Greater Noida) which is held biennially.
Which particular product gives you
the maximum revenues and which segment in the industry gives you the maximum
volumes?
I would say the tyre care equipment
give us the maximum volumes. And the passenger car segment gives us the maximum
volumes. Going forward, this segment will continue to account for a major chunk
of our revenue pie. But the HCV segment is also picking up fast with the entry
of players like Bharat Benz, MAN, Scania, etc. This is because this segment has
been using traditional tools and equipment. But with more high-tech vehicles
coming in, we expect to cater to these (premium brand) companies by supplying
some next-gen products.
Whom do you generally supply your
products to? And are you planning to cash in on the unprecedented boom in the
organised automotive servicing industry in India?
A big chunk of our business comes
from authorised dealerships of the OEMs. Since we are approved by most of the
OEMs across India, we get a sizeable number of orders from these authorised
service outfits. And yes, we definitely look forward to cash in on the
unprecedented boom in the organised servicing industry in India. Even though
there has been a modest decline in the industry for the last 7-8 months, the
garage equipment industry has been fortunate to weather the storm. This is
because a number of new players are expanding their footprint in India. So even
though we are seeing some drop in numbers from our existing clients, we have
managed to bag quite a few orders from the service network of the new entrants.
Can you please tell us the products that
you are assembling here and the ones that are imported?
Most of the products that we are
retailing like wheel balancers or aligners are imported as a CBU. However, there are some products that we are
assembling here like gas analysers and smoke meters which comes under the
pollution control equipment. We also manufacture tool cabinets and tool
trolleys, hydraulic press and cranes, etc. We are already running an assembly
unit at Manesar. We are buying some components from Europe and other locations
and assembling them here.
What is the strength of your sales
and service network?
We are running a chain of 110 sales
and service networks across the country. By 2018-2020, we should be doubling
the count of our current strength.Our headcount will also be ramped up two-fold
from 165 to 330 by that time. The Indian car market is itself witnessing a
massive growth from 2.5 million units currently to 9.5 million units by
2019-20. Even if the car industry doesn’t attain that scale, it should
comfortably reach 6.5 million units. And we would be riding on that growth.
Do you have any plans to establish
training centres for imparting skills to dealer technicians and your own
service engineers?
We are already running an in-house
training centre at our corporate office in Gurgaon. We have one of the best
such centres in the industry. We are already providing training to OEM dealers.
We have been providing training to dealer technicians for quite some time now.
To have a skilled manpower is certainly a big challenge for a company like us.
You had launched the Artiglio
‘Master’ by Corghi which was a gamechanger in the tyre care segment when it
introduced the leverless technology in 2001. What has been its response in the
Indian market?
Artiglio Master is machine which
makes it very simple to mount/demount Run Flat Tyres (RFTs) and big size tyres.
We expect this technology to be well-accepted in the Indian market in a couple
of years’ time. This is because the tyres being used in the Indian market are
quite simple, we don’t use too much of run flat tyres here. Barring one or two
OEMs, no one is using run flat tyres at the moment. Secondly, if you see the
tyre sizes in our industry, it averages in the range of 15-16 inches in range
which we expect to grow further to 19-20 inches. When we will finally have more
of these sizes, the Master will be the product for the tyre operators.
Coming back to Corghi, it has
brought out another innovation, clamp-less wheel aligner, R.E.M.O. How different is it from your sophisticated
Blue Light wheel balancer?
R.E.M.O, as you are aware is a
clampless wheel aligner and is going to be the future of wheel alignment industry. We have already
launched this machine during early this year at the Automechanika’13. We have
already made one installation and have to meet a couple of more orders in the
next two-three months. In fact India is the first market outside of Italy where
we have installed the R.E.M.O. Blue Light is a top end with features like
radial run out measurement for tyres as well as rims, tyre tread depth
measurement, guidance on optimum position of the tyre on the axle etc.
Would you say that the garage
equipment industry has evolved in India?
Yes, the industry where we are
present in has evolved over the years (in India). Earlier, there was only
imported equipment available here. Then there was a flood of cheaper products
from China and other countries. Over the last few years, our customers’
preference is going back to high-quality products that are originally coming
from Europe, Japan, etc. After experiencing some sub-standard products, they
have again shifted back to world-class products that we sell.
Going forward, are you planning to
cater to auto component makers too?
No, we don’t have a product line for
this industry.
Lastly, what is your vision for the
company?
We would like to be always in the
forefront in brining new technologies and solutions to the Indian automotive
industry. In terms of revenues, we should be tripling our revenues by 2020. And
I would like to see ARO to be the most favoured company by the OEMs across the
country.