Text: Anusha B
Nu-Vu Conair, Ahmedabad-based plastic auxiliary equipment manufacturer plans to expand its capacity to meet the growing demand for its products. Nu-Vu Conair, a 50:50 joint venture between Conair Group of USA and Nu-Vu Engineers manufactures plastic auxiliary equipment, which are majorly consumed by the automotive plastic component manufacturers. The JV complements each other as Nu-Vu has establishment and manufacturing capability in India and Conair has a globally recognised brand and proven technology. The Indian automotive market is lucrative and the middle segment of India is highly volatile. Car makers will have an excellent potential in India for hatchback as well as sedan models though price-wise it is quoted high. The component suppliers will get benefited due to rise in demand of cars, in which Nu-Vu Conair sees opportunity to supply plastic auxiliary equipment to components suppliers. In order to meet the rising demand, the company is also planning to increase the output by constructing a new plant near to its existing facility. With that facility becoming operational, the company is expecting to increase the output.
Dehumidifying Dryer
Speaking to Auto Components India, Satish Godase remarked that, “Our equipment processes all kinds of polymers and depending upon the applications we would be able to deliver auxiliary equipment to our customers. The state-of-the-art technology is inputted from our US partner Conair and the critical components are also getting delivered through them. The sheet metal used in our auxiliary equipment is procured locally so as the electrical component and its configuration with the requirement differ country-wise. Few other components are also sourced from Europe, Taiwan, USA and India. The manufacturing facility is located in Ahmedabad, but the service and sales engineers are stationed across India catering the needs of our customers. Other than automotive our equipment are also being used packaging, automotive, consumer electronics and irrigation industries.”
Satish Godase
The company currently has its manufacturing facility in Ahmedabad, which has dedicated assembly lines for all the products. It has also introduced couple of new products like granulators with a different variant and robots for injection molding machines. With these addition NU VU Conair can supply turnkey solutions to customer so that customer have one source for all their needs. Godase also said, “We are in the process of setting up a new facility near to the existing one, which will come up in 50,000 sq.ft. Currently we produce 5000 equipments and with the help of our plant, we could expect an output of 8000 equipments where the operations in the new facility are expected to commence in 2017.”
Mould Temperature Controller
Conair smells the need of their establishment in India as the auto industry is expected to grow exponentially in the country. Lot of OEMs establishes their manufacturing setup in India reinforcing the Make in India campaign which sounds its gong to reciprocate to satiate their auxiliary needs. Stressing on their reason to get established further Godase stated that, “Though Conair has presence in India for many years, since 1994, with the new joint venture, we have gained an absolute edge amongst fellow players and has a good set-up of manufacturing, sales, service and administration in place today and not to leave behind Conair has the essential experience in designing and manufacturing of auxiliary equipment.”
Automotive plastic parts like dashboards, shields, cockpits, consoles, lighting system, use the plastic components in majority which in turn requires auxiliary equipment in their manufacturing process. The component suppliers who are manufacturing those components are the company’s customers. Conair’s product portfolio includes loaders, conveying systems, dryers, gravimetric blenders, feeders, chillers, mould temperature controllers, belt conveyor and granulators. The company supplies equipment for injection moulding machines, extrusion machines and deliver innovative solutions for plastic auxiliary needs. The customer base of the company includes IAC Automotives, (who supplies plastic components to General Motors, Volkswagen and Maruti Suzuki) Minda Group, Varroc and Motherson’s Sumi.
Godase underlines the fact that, “We stand unique with our applications in auxiliary industries. Conair is the first company to start vacuum conveying for polymer way back in 1956 and the brand value of our company reasons our strength in the industry. The product unveil is not a big deal in the market but the applications it has been put under for value a lot. We have 2 R&D centers, one at Pennsylvania which takes care of the machineries and auxiliary equipment research and usage of new polymers. The other one is at Michigan which takes care of the extrusion downstream system such as automotive PVC tubing’s. We have a test center at Michigan wherein the clients are encouraged to test their orders before delivery.”
Gravimetric Blender
The company also feels that, as repo rate, CRR figures are less now, the loans from the banks are easily accessible with reduced interest rates. The disposable income of the customers being high, the middle segment gets elevated and looking for luxury sedan cars. With the help of the current market condition, Nu-Vu Conair plans to do a commendable business as it could hit the market matching the varied needs of the customers due to the fact that the company regularly updates its technology to be at par with the prevailing standards in the market.
Highlighting the insights of lightweight adoption, Godase added that, “Usage of plastic components has been increasing gradually in automotive industries. But the plastic components should perform in tough and testing conditions and for that they need some characteristics which would be supported with additives mixed with base polymers. Some additives bring strength to polymer and that helps in reduction in part weight and in turn aid light weighting of the components. These engineered plastics requires our auxiliary equipment to pre-process before molding/extrusion to produce quality plastic components required by automotive industry. Through this way we support light weighting of vehicles.”
Screw Chiller
The company also exports 10% of its products to SAARC countries, Gulf and African countries. “We have good customer base in these region but there are lots of opportunities and potential potential. We still have to gear up our production to step into those areas. In another 2 to 3 years, we would increase our export line to up to 25%. Last year we recorded an annual turnover of Rs 53crore with significant contribution from auto industries which is also increasing and that will also add to our turnover proportionally,” concluded Godase.
