Established in 1975 and marketed under its brand GEEKAY, GK Winding Wires Limited is the leading manufacturer of copper & aluminum enameled winding wires in India. With 4 manufacturing facilities spread over India, the company produces approximately 1400 TPM copper and 400 TPM aluminum, serving customers across India for any scale of customer needs. G.K. Winding Wires is currently planning to expand their product portfolio into rectangular wires for the Indian EV market, by localizing the japanese technology and start manufacturing the rectangular wires within this calendar year. In a recent interview with Wire & Cable India, Mr. Sameer Agarwal, Managing Director, G.K. Winding Wires Limited, gave us a walk-through of the company’s manufacturing capabilities, industries they cater to, their product portfolio, upcoming projects as well as CSR activities.
Wire & Cable India: Please give us a brief walkthrough of your company, highlighting the manufacturing facility, capacity, major industries served and the product portfolio of the company.
Sameer Agarwal: GK Winding Wires Limited was established in 1975 and is currently operating as one of the largest manufacturers of copper and aluminum enameled round winding wires. We have 4 manufacturing facilities present in different parts of India, namely Baddi in Himachal Pradesh, Sri City near Chennai and 2 plants in Noida, making us possibly the only company with pan India geographical manufacturing presence. We produce approximately 1200-1400 TPM of copper and about 400 TPM of aluminum, and cater to majorly 4 industries which are auto electricals, home appliances, electronics and transformer industries. We invest a lot in terms of technology and quality because products for EVs are complicated to manufacture. Therefore, we plan to ensure that these advanced products are acceptable to that industry through international tie ups and consultations.
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WCI: Could you shed some light on any recent or future developments at the company?
SA: We are currently planning to expand our product portfolio into rectangular wires especially for the EV market, as 4 wheeler EVs will use small rectangular cross sections. Currently, there is only 1 Japanese company which is approved by various manufacturers like Toyota for the production of these wires. However, we plan to localize that technology and start manufacturing the rectangular wires within this calendar year. Once we start making these specialized products for EV, we are looking at Europe as the top market. Another market for this product will be India, with a population of over 140 crore. Furthermore, as per capita consumption of copper is one of the lowest in India, it is bound to grow and therefore presents a huge opportunity for growth.
“The size of the Indian market for winding wires would be approximately 300,000 tonnes, out of which a major section of 35 to 40 percent is in the unorganized sector. Of the 150,000 tonnes of the organized market, we produce about 20,000 tonnes of copper and aluminum and are in the top 3 manufacturers.”
WCI: Could you share some insights on the Indian as well as global winding wires market?
SA: The size of the Indian market for winding wires would be approximately 300,000 tonnes, out of which a major section of 35 to 40 percent is in the unorganized sector. Of the 150,000 tonnes of the organized market, we produce about 20,000 tonnes of copper and aluminum and are in the top 3 manufacturers. This indicates that the Indian winding wires market is a very fragmented market because even the leading player in this industry would have market share in single digit. However, that is yet again an opportunity as the market is eventually bound to consolidate.
Although the manufacturing industry has not reached the scale where they can retain or encourage good talent, we feel that the next 10 years are the golden years for the manufacturing industry. As the industry will grow in scale, more talent will be retained. We believe that the government is providing extraordinary support to the electrical industry through all the PLI schemes being implemented in the electrical sector. The government schemes have made local content mandatory to receive PLI, which means that the companies will encourage Make in India, subsequently benefiting the entire Indian electrical industry.
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WCI: Is there a CSR policy in place at the company?
SA: Our company’s chairman takes special interest in CSR, due to which we always had a high portion of our profit which we utilized for CSR activities, even prior to when CSR was made mandatory by the government. We are associated with Organ India and sponsor certain athletes for the international Olympics, which are organized for people who have received a donated organ. We work regularly with Akshaya Patra for the Midday Meal Program. We organize an eye camp, which runs from our factory location on the first Wednesday of each month, and all operations for people who visit are sponsored by the company. We also have a trust which runs a school in our hometown, Shahpur.
