With an annual turnover of INR 3200 crore, the growth pattern of Shilpi Cable seems right on track with its diversified and quality-oriented product portfolio.
Shilpi Cable Technologies Limited, founded in the year 2006, has achieved a conspicuous standing among its peers in the wire and cable industry in a very short stretch of time. Starting with a project to manufacture RF cables, Shilpi Cables has become a specialist across the varieties of cables widely used in telecom, automotive and energy segments.
Shilpi’s commitment to technology and innovation remains lasting, and that’s one of the reasons why Shilpi ascended to the position where it is now in a quick span. Besides, its adherence to quality and pricing also helped it gain customer’s confidence in longer run. In order to know the Shilpi’s mantra of success and its future game plan, Wire & Cable India recently interviewed Mr. Manish Goel, Managing Director, Shilpi Cable Technologies Limited. Here are excerpts:
Wire & Cable India: Tell us about your company and its journey till now.
Manish Goel: Shilpi Cable Technologies Limited (SCTL), a separate wing of three decades old Shilpi Group was founded in the year 2006. Starting with a project to manufacture RF cables, Shilpi Cables has become a specialist across the varieties of cables widely used in telecom, automotive and energy segment.
Shilpi has seen multi-folds growth over the last five years. This phenomenal growth can be attributed to our focus on customer’s needs and the ability to provide the most cost competitive products with highest quality standards. Today Shilpi is able to command respect in the Telecom and Automotive sector as one of the preferred business partners. Our business (put together Indian + overseas) is at as annual turnover of INR 3,200 crore.
WCI: Shilpi has various modern manufacturing facilities. What are the capacities of these plants? How much are you producing at present?
MG: Shilpi’s manufacturing plants are located in Choupanki and Bhiwadi, 1.5 hr drive from NCR. The plants are spread over 10.5 acres with ample space available for expansion. We are an ISO 9001: 2008; ISO TS 16949; ISO 14001: 2004; OHSAS 18001:2007 certified company with a capacity to produce over 850,000 km of wires and 9,000 km of RF Feeder Cable in a year equipped with latest quality testing equipment, with grid availability for more than 95 percent of power back up systems in place, effluent treatment plant and rain water harvesting systems in place.
WCI: Share with us your product portfolio. Do you have any new product lined up?
MG: Shilpi Cables offer quality and environmental compatible products (ISO 9001: 2008) which are being used by major customers across the globe. Besides catering to telecommunications, automobile sector and wiring harness sector, Shilpi also develops customer specific cables for various applications. In the last few years the company has enlarged its product offering to include aluminum enameled wires, aluminum RF Cables and wiring harnesses for auto sector.
SCTL has plans to enter LED lighting vertical in the next quarter under the brand ‘Safe’. Last fiscal, the company generated revenue of Rs 50 crore from retail sales and we are expecting it to grow up further as more products are being added under the brand.
WCI: Your product offerings are mainly aimed at automotive, telecom and consumer durable sectors. Which one is the largest segment for you in terms of both the number and capacity of products you manufacture?
MG: Shilpi Cables has an advantage of being a diversified group with focus on automotive components, telecom cables and accessories, electricals and white goods segment. All the industries that Shilpi is serving are currently going through a very exciting phase.
26 percent of the company’s revenue comes from telecom segment, 21 percent from automotive, 12 percent from consumer durables/assemblies, 7 percent from energy cables and rest 34 percent from copper wire conductor business.
WCI: Is it right that Shilpi is planning to double its capacity and has started buying machines for the purpose? Do you see enough demand in the market for the extra produce after capacity doubling?
MG: We are planning to double our capacity in the enameled wire segment only where there is a huge demand in the market and we already have order booking for the future capacity expansion. However, in other segments we are only expanding our capacity to calibrate with the natural growth in business and also synchronize process-wise capabilities, but not doubling the capacity.
SCTL is present in nine states through 250 distributors and 1,200 retailers. Apart from expansion in domestic market, the company is also exploring other geographies. SCTL has already started operations in Singapore and Hong Kong and will soon be entering markets like South Africa and UK. We endeavour to be a billion dollar company by 2020. For this along with B2B business, we have also started servicing B2C segment by manufacturing wires and cables which can be used in local household business, thereby expanding our customer base.
WCI: Share with us Shilpi’s adherence to sustainable practices and its stand on technology & innovation.
MG: At Shilpi Cables, our inducement and inspiration lies in the satisfaction of our customers and so we believe in offering to our clients the products and services that are capable of leveling the benchmark in the industry. We lay special emphasis on quality, technology and innovation of the products and services offered at Shilpi to achieve what we call our motive- “Customer Satisfaction”. Our quality management systems enable us to demonstrate our commitment to quality and customer satisfaction.
Our strategies – be it for the products manufactured, marketed, branded, technology/ R&D etc. by us, and other such functions are all synchronized to meet the needs of the end user. We also adhere to sustainable practices and follow integrated management system; integration here refers to integration of quality, environment and OH&S management systems. Our target is to meet the market requirement through technology development and fast operations.
WCI: Tell us how you see the present state of the wire and cable industry in terms of present business and future outlook.
MG: Shilpi Cables has the advantage of catering to a wide range of industries. All the industries that Shilpi is serving to currently are going through a very exciting phase. Moreover, the “Make in India” campaign has given a much needed push to revive the manufacturing sector in India. Not only indigenization will increase but export will also pick up. All these developments open up huge opportunities for Shilpi to scale the growth of the company to higher levels.
WCI: If you could snap your fingers and change one thing about the wire and cable industry, what would you change?
MG: If we could change one thing in the industry, we would like to change the current practice of buying raw material at cash and supplying the finished goods on credit to our customers. Rather we would like to change it to buy in cash and supply at cash, because wires and cable industry has became a tool of financing working capital for OEM’s and other manufacturers, which in-turn put immense pressure of working capital management for our industry.
