Made in India ALP Nishikawa Company

MADE IN INDIA

ALP Nishikawa Company is a part of India-based ALP Group, a pioneer in the development of EPDM technology for the country’s automotive market. Mr Iqbal Singh Anand, Chairman, discloses to Victoria Hattersley how the company has grown in recent years and how it has benefited from the ‘Make in India’ programme.

Part of the globally renowned ALP Group, ALP Nishikawa Company (ANCO) is a 50:50 joint venture between the India-based Anand Group and Nishikawa Rubber Co., Japan. Established in 1996, it is currently India’s leading manufacturer of EPDM rubber sealing system for cars. It is an OEM supplier to all major car manufacturers in India. 25 per cent of the ALP Group’s output is exported to areas such as the US, Africa and Europe. To facilitate this it has a strong network of dealers and distributors with sales offices in New York, South Africa and Spain.

The Group has manufacturing plants in Lalru (Punjab), Gurgaon (Haryana), Rudrapur (Uttrakhand) and NOIDA (Uttar Pradesh) as well as a plant in South Africa, at each of which it develops and produces complete sealing solutions for cars and commercial vehicles. Continuous capacity expansion is an important part of ALP’s strategy and it invests around USD 3–5 million annually for this purpose.

In addition to its impressive production capacity, ANCO also has a state-of-the-art design centre in Gurgaon with CATIA and UG design software, and a product testing & validation lab in Lalru.

The ALP Group

Before we go on to look in more detail about ANCO’s operations it would be helpful, in order to get some context, to look briefly at the structure of the ALP Group itself. Founded by Mr Iqbal Singh Anand over three decades ago, it consists of four separate companies: ALP Nishikawa Company Private Ltd; ALP Overseas Private Ltd; ALP Plastics Private Ltd; and ALP Aeroflex India Private Ltd. Its total annual turnover is around INR 450 Crore.

ANCO, the subject of this article, is also the flagship company of the group and was the first in India to introduce EPDM Weatherstrips to the automotive industry. ALP Overseas Private Ltd provides worldclass sealing systems to clients all over the world, including Canada, the US, Europe, Russia and Sri Lanka, and it also has a manufacturing facility in South Africa.

ALP Plastics Private Ltd is the ALP Group’s Plastic and Injection Moulded Parts production unit, responsible for the manufacture of PVC/TPO/TPR extrusions. Finally, ALP Aeroflex India Pvt. Ltd is a joint venture of ALP Overseas and Eastern Polymer Industries of Thailand for the manufacturing of EPDM/nitrile insulation sheets, tubes and accessories for HVAC applications.

Products and technologies

ALP’s production facilities are equipped with a number of state-of-theart technologies, including three mixing lines with an output capacity of 40 MT per day. It also has 14 continuous curing extrusion lines and for its finishing operations it has 350 moulding presses (both hydraulic and pneumatic) as well as special purpose machines for drilling,

punching, notching, cutting and various other operations. The group has four TPO/TPE/PVC Lines and is installing a new line for TPE glass runs, besides having five injection moulding machines.

ALP is able to offer an impressively wide range of products for the automotive, non-automotive and HVAC&R industries. According to Mr Anand these can broadly be divided into two main categories: EPDM sealing systems and Nitrile/EPDM elastomeric insulations.

In the area of sealing systems, ALP produces windshield seals, encompassing cowl seals, roof line seals, sunroof seals, hood to cowl, hood to radiator, rear window seals, trunk/tail gate seals, injection moulded quarter lights, inner belt line seals, corner moulds and glass run channels. Its offering also includes seals for window gaskets, rear windshields, wheels arch rubbers, door seals, diggy seals and emergency door rubbers. Its Plastics division manufactures foot mats for OEs and other plastic injection moulded parts.

In the area of Nitrile/EPDM elastomeric insulations ALP offers tubes and sheets with acoustic insulation and related insulation accessories.

It is important for ALP that all the above products are manufactured according to the highest quality standards. In recognition of this, it has been accredited with several quality certifications, including TS-16949, ISO-9001, ISOS-14001 and ISO/TS 16949.

But a strong product range is not the only factor that helps the company to stand out in this competitive marketplace: it also offers a consistently high level of service. Mr Anand sums up ALP’s strengths in this way: “Quality, timely deliveries and customer support help us to stand out in a competitive market. We are able to deliver a complete package of sealing systems for automotive customers.”

Strong customer and supplier bonds

ALP has long-standing relationships with many high profile clients throughout the world, in confirmation of which it has received several trophies and certificates. For example, Maruti Suzuki awarded it with a Gold Trophy for ‘Overall Performance’ as well as certificates for superior performance in the areas of ‘Incoming Quality Improvement’, ‘Best Performing Vendor for Technology Group Rubber Components’, ‘Design Capability’, ‘Design & Development’, ‘Kaizen & MPS’ and, finally, ‘Safety’.

Furthermore, it also received a certificate from its client Honda Cars for participation in its Kaizen Competition, while Renault Nissan awarded it with a Certificate of Appreciation as an acknowledgement of its continued dedicated support. From Tata Motors it has received certificates in recognition of the two companies’ long mutual asso-

ciation along with a special Citation of Distinction. Finally, it has been awarded a certificate from Toyota Kirloskar for achieving targets in the ‘Delivery & Cost’ category.

ALP is aware that its ability to offer this consistently high level of service to its customers is down in no small part to the long-term relationships it has built with its key suppliers. These include, but are not limited to, such well-known names as Lanxess, Mitsui & Co. (Thailand) Ltd, Lurdes Bosch Spain, Exxon Mobil Singapore, Sheree Pollard UK, Mitsui Chemicals India Pvt. Ltd, Apar Industries Ltd India, 3M India Ltd, Gurgaon and Continental Carbon Ltd, Gaziabad.

Investments and growth prospects

ALP has benefited greatly from the widely publicised ‘Make in India’ programme and planned development of the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor. These projects will continue to fuel its development, as well as that of many other companies throughout the country, as Mr Anand explains: “The ‘Make in India’ and Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor Project is a state-sponsored Industrial Development Project of the Government of India. It is aimed at developing industrial zones spanning six states in India which would spur economic development in the region and develop industries. The backbone of the project would be a dedicated Freight Corridor that would cut the logistical costs of manufactured goods to make them the lowest in the world.” The group has acquired 30 acres of land on this corridor near Delhi and is in the advanced stages of negotiating JV projects in Water Proofing – Sound Insulation with a Japanese company and plastic moulded accessories with a Thai company.

Aside from the above, it is expected that ALP Group’s future growth will be achieved through a mixture of organic expansion and acquisitions. It recently invested USD 5 million into the company, with further investments of USD 2 million into its Indian operations and USD 2 million into its South African operations planned for 2016.

Mr Anand concludes: “We plan to grow organically at a 15–20 per cent rate each year, besides acquiring competitor companies abroad and collaborating with international trading partners to grow sales. Our focus will continue to be the rubber-plastics business and we expect to touch sales of USD 150 million by 2018/19.” And with its award-winning customer service, coupled with its dynamic sales network throughout the world, this strategy is likely to pay dividends in the years to come. n