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Mr K.R. Ragavan, Executive Director, Sundaram Motors, and Mr Rakesh Makhija, Managing Director, SKF Bearings India Ltd, at the launch of SKF's automotive bearing kits in Chennai on Tuesday.

CHENNAI, Aug. 6

SKF Bearings India Ltd plans to focus more on the aftermarket operations. Currently, aftermarket operations account for 40 per cent of its turnover and the original equipment sales the balance. Last financial year, the company recorded domestic sales of Rs 360 crore.

As part of its increased focus on the aftermarket, SKF Bearings has launched automotive bearing kits for the retail market. It has tied up with Sundaram Motors of the TVS group, which will be SKF's exclusive distributor for the automotive kits in the South.

Mr Rakesh Makhija, Managing Director, SKF Bearings India, told a press conference here today, that the kit had been launched in Hyderabad and Bangalore and the response had been good.

The kit concept is meant to achieve perfect servicing of the vehicles as all the parts required for repairs need to be perfectly matched and packed together.

The kits are for the Maruti 800 front and rear wheel bearings. Along with the bearings, other parts such as oil seals need to be changed and this will be part of the kit.

Mr Makhija said SKF would launch other kits, both for automotive and industrial applications. The other kits that the company planned to launch in the near future were the timing belt kit, clutch release bearing kit and water pump kit.

Over a period of time, SKF would bring 40-50 different types of kits to the Indian market. The kit concept was prevalent worldwide.

Mr K.R. Ragavan, Executive Director, Sundaram Motors, said the company had the natural advantage for promoting the kit concept because of its role as a user in the service industry and its predominant presence in the components and spare parts replacement market.

Company officials said that the size of the bearings market in India was about Rs 1,800 crore, of which domestic bearings accounted for Rs 1,200 crore and imported bearings the balance.

SKF Bearings had a 27 per cent share of the total market. About 65 per cent of its turnover came from the automotive segment, both OE sales and aftermarket operations.

Asked about the performance this year, Mr Makhija said SKF Bearings reported sales of Rs 200 crore for the first half of this financial year, which was a 17 per cent increase over last year.

To a question, he said there were no plans for the parent company, SKF of Sweden, to increase its stake from the current level of 54 per cent in SKF Bearings India.

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