Embarking upon a new venture and surviving the competition can be ambitious tasks. Just like in any other industry, in the Indian power electronics arena, too, new companies are being established every other day. Some fail to withstand the rigours of seasonal slowdowns, poor government policies, unruly distribution networks, competition from co-manufacturers, threats from foreign imports and tardy payments. These enterprises slowly dwindle and fade away before they have even taken off. There are others, however, who brave the initial trials and tribulations of business establishment and emerge victorious. EPower highlights 10 such newcomers in the power electronics fraternity, who have not only endured the hardships that startups go through but also have demonstrated impressive growth during the few years of their existence. We welcome the new entrants on the block!
By Rutaksha Rawat
Monday, July 20, 2009:
INFONET CARE ENTERPRISES, Founded in: 2002, Revenue then: Rs 600,000 and now: Rs 800,000
Infonet Care Enterprises is piloted by Tarik Siddiqui as director and comprises 30 people. With its manufacturing unit based in Delhi, the business house can process about 3,000 units of inverters per month. Though it is not exporting its creations currently, Infonet is geared to commence the export of inverters to Sri Lanka and Thailand in the near future. It sells both directly and through the distribution network and has eight channel partners across India. It is also a service provider for spectrum analysers, undertaking installation and repair of these products.
Siddiqui cites the invasion of substandard but cheap Chinese products as one of the hurdles manufacturers face today. “Another hurdle is expensive manpower. With the event of BPOs, etc, even undergraduates are drawing salaries of Rs 10,000-20,000. As a result, qualified engineers feel that they deserve a lot more and will not settle for a remuneration of anything less than Rs 35,000—an exorbitant prospect for startup manufacturers like us,” remarks Siddiqui.
The company is targeting a turnover of Rs 2 million for the next fiscal. “Our growth strategy entails courting the lower middle class because that is where the real business potential lies, not with the upper middle class. Profit lies in quantity. It is much more beneficial to sell a quality product at a cheap rate by the dozen than to sell just one unit of an expensive product. We are planning to adopt this policy to garner more sales. We are small right now but are striving to grow,” says Siddiqui.
Product line: Inverters, online UPS, cable TV accessories, optical equipment, etc.
ASIA POWERCOM PVT LTD, Founded in: 2004, Declined to reveal revenue
Asia Powercom is headquartered in Mumbai and has created a niche for itself in the power electronics segment, engineering UPS systems for a wide range of applications. Led by chairman Ashok Israni, this ISO 9001:2000 certified company is listed on the Taiwan stock exchange, with a turnover of Rs 7,000 million and has five factories in Taiwan and China, employing 100 people in India alone and 1,300, worldwide.
The company claims to have the largest production facility in the world. It is one of the few manufacturers in the world with a capacity to produce 3 million UPS systems in one year alone and is an OEM supplier to Siemens, Wal-Mart, Energizer, Monster Cables, Wipro, etc. Almost 60 per cent of the company’s business is generated from OEMs and the balance, through their brand, PCM. It also has nine R&D teams, each specialising in a particular area. It has been granted the international certifications of CE, UL, TUV, FCC and ERTL and exports its products to almost 70 countries.
Asia Powercom claims to be Taiwan’s No. 1 and the world’s third largest UPS manufacturer and has declared itself a “global leader in power protection”. It has 125-140 channel partners across India. The company’s mission is to give value for money products at the best quality to its customers.
MAKSON ENGINEERS, Founded in: 2001, Revenue then: Rs 3 mn and now: Rs 25 mn
Makson, an ISO 9001:2000 certified company, was founded by a team of engineers, technicians and businessmen committed to technology, and has been in the landscape of manufacturing power products ever since. This Mumbai headquartered enterprise is navigated by CEO Sandeep Agarwal and has a workforce of 20 professionals. The company has its manufacturing facility in Daman and also imports online UPS from China. It yields 30 units of online UPS monthly and 500 units of other products (combined) and sells both directly as well as through the channel.
Makson attributes meeting customer expectations, timely delivery and competent servicing of products, constant product upgradation and periodic training of technical personnel as the factors behind its swift climb to success. Product line: Online and line interactive UPS, sine wave and lift inverters, stabilisers, constant voltage transformers (CVTs) and regular transformers.
THARIT POWER POINT PVT LTD, Founded in: 2002, Revenue then: Rs 4.4 mn and now: Rs 15 mn
Tharit Power Point was incepted in Siliguri, West Bengal, under the leadership of director Dhiman Das Gupta. The ISO 9001:2000 certified business has a 15-employee workforce and claims to be “one of the most credible sequence panel manufacturers of India”. The firm’s manufacturing plant is situated in Kolkata and it only sells directly, preferring to forgo the distribution stream. Tharit has not been exporting so far but is in the process of commencing supply of its products to Bangladesh. The company generates a monthly revenue of Rs 1.5 million.
“We want to sustain and increase the number of our customers through troublefree performance of our products,” says Das Gupta.
Product line: Servo/relay voltage stabilisers, UPS, inverters, home UPS, isolation transformers, sequential panels, led display boards, battery chargers and aviation power packs.
ARVI SYSTEMS AND CONTROLS PVT LTD, Founded in: 1998, Revenue then: Rs 2 mn and now: Rs 60 mn
ARVI Systems is an ISO 9001:2008 certified manufacturer and exporter of UPS and other power conditioning machinery. The company, headed by its managing director Vinod Kumar, has a state-of-the-art manufacturing plant in Bengaluru and is an approved vendor for the defence sector. It also supplies online UPS to OEMs and public and private enterprises.
ARVI supports a crew of 40 people and has a monthly production capacity of 200 units. It has received the import/export code approval for business and exports through its OEM partners. The company has a 48-dealer network of OEM partners. Currently, ARVI Systems is enthused about its GN series of online UPS, which has been developed inhouse and is essentially a green online UPS (up to 120 KVA), with 0.99 input active input power factor and less than 5 per cent input current harmonic distortion. The company has also launched the unique zero changeover line interactive UPS, (up to 10 KVA).
“Our products conform to International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) 62040-1, 2 and 3, for performance and to electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) and electromagnetic interference (EMI) standards for safety,” asserts Kumar. ARVI wishes to be a technical leader in the Indian power electronics ambit, by offering innovative solutions with the latest technologies and supreme standards of quality and support to its patrons.
Product line: Offline (500 VA-10 KVA)/online UPS (1 KVA-150 KVA), sine wave inverters, frequency converters, battery chargers and servo stabilisers.
KONGU ENGINEERS, Founded in: 2000,Revenue then: Rs 2.5 mn and now: Rs 8 mn
This Chennai based enterprise is presided over by K Periasamy, who is also the proprietor of the organisation. It has a workforce of 15 and manufactures 2,000 units of UPS and inverters (combined) on a monthly basis. The company disseminates its goods both directly and through channel partners.
Kongu Engineers is currently focusing on energy saving and solar products to strengthen its business.
Product line: UPS, inverters, battery chargers, SMPSs and stabilisers.
POWERTRONIX SYSTEMS PVT LTD,Founded in: 1998,Revenue then: Rs 3 mn and now: Rs 150 mn
Powertronix initially started its operation in Bengaluru and has now spread across five states—Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. Managed by Ramesh S as chairman and founder, the company has a workforce of 120, a far cry from the three employees it started with eventually.
Powertronix’s manufacturing unit is based in Bengaluru and the company has a monthly production capacity of 500 inverters and 200 UPS systems, with a monthly generation of Rs 20 million (all products combined). This ISO 9001:2000 certified company exports to Bangladesh and Qatar and also to Asian countries. The firm sells directly as well as through the distribution grapevine.
Powertronix has recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the government of Madhya Pradesh for a biofuel and energy farming project, wherein the latter has allotted 5,000 acres of land to the enterprise for the same. The company wants to attain global recognition for excellence in energy provision and aims to get public listing within the next five years. Also, Powertronix plans to amplify its operations to all Indian states and also to foreign markets.
Product line: UPS, lighting UPS, battery and SMPS chargers, solar inverters, isolation transformers, automation panels, industrial voltage stabilisers, direct current power plants, etc.
POWERNET SOLUTIONS PVT LTD, Founded in: 1999Revenue then: Rs 9 mn and now: Rs 80 mn
Powernet Solutions is a professionally managed company, engaged in the design and manufacture of UPS and inverters and is ISO 9001:2000 certified. It has also secured certifications from the Electronic Tests and Development Centre and the Defence R&D Organisation, and has a registered contract from the director general of suppliers and disposals. Furthermore, Powernet is enlisted with National Small Industries Corporation Ltd for government purchase.
Supervised by directors S Sumanth Kumar and K M Krishna Murthy, Powernet has a brigade of 49 members. The company, which also imports high frequency online and rack mounted online UPS systems, has its factory in Bengaluru. It rolls out 1,000 UPS systems, 500 battery chargers and 500 inverters every month. It conducts 40 per cent of its business via channel partners and is in the process of expanding its network further.
The company’s products are all indigenously designed, with digital signal processing based digital control and pure sine wave online power conditioners. Its products are type tested by the Central Power Research Institute for degree of protection. The company’s client base comprises OEMs, project consultants and end users.
Currently, Powernet is expanding its activities to the realm of solar products and wants to maintain the standards it has set for itself, in terms of providing quality products at competitive prices.
Product line: Online UPS systems, chargers, inverters, transformers, solar power products and energy saving devices.
ALFA POWER SOLUTION, Founded in: 2003, Revenue then: Rs 2.5 mn and now: Rs 9 mn
An ISO 9001:2000 certified company, Alfa Power is spearheaded by Ajay Chandel as managing director. The company cites ‘innovation’ as its guiding force and has two production units in Delhi, with a workforce of 50. It produces 30 units of 5KVA-10KVA inverters and 60-70 units of 300VA-4KVA inverters daily and is also CE and Underwriters Laboratories (UL) certified.
The firm sells in the domestic market largely through a distribution network, engaging approximately 70 channel partners across India. It also exports to Africa, South Africa and Asia. “To us, the client is the king. We customise products as per customer requirements in order to keep them happy. Our flexibility in terms of production has helped us foster good relationships with clients,” comments Abhishek Singh, project manager, Alfa Power.
The company aims to achieve a revenue of Rs 120 million by 2010. It intends to foray into other domains and establish offices overseas in order to spread its presence and thicken business potential.
Product line: Offline and online UPS, inverter and UPS cards, digital inverters, battery life enhancers, chargers, battery chargers, audio amplifiers, solar products, photovoltaic modules, water descaling units, etc.
FINE POWER SYSTEMS, Founded in: 2001, Revenue then: Rs 2.5 mn and now: Rs 4.5 mn
This Tamil Nadu based company is captained by partners Suresh T S and R Kartikeyan and has its manufacturing plant in Coimbatore. The company caters to the states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka. With a workforce of 12, this new entrant in the manufacturing circuit, produces up to 100 units (comprising all products) every month. In Tamil Nadu, Fine Power sells directly, whereas for Kerala and Karnataka, it has adopted the channel partner route and has five channel partners.
The company aspires to gain strength by leveraging its product line—by adding new and quality products to its existent range to garner more sales. It is in the process of updating its technology and intends to launch a new, improved UPS in two years’ time. “We have an outsourced R&D team in Coimbatore, which is making efforts to improve the technology of our current model of UPS. We are excited about this venture and hope it will bring positive results. Also, we have increased our production capacity to increase revenue,” informs Suresh T S.
“The market is slow right now and has been since the past two years, due to market crunch but we are hopeful that our strategic efforts will bear fruit,” adds he.
Product line: Online and sine wave UPS, servo stabilisers, inverters, battery chargers and switch mode power systems.
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