Ashlok eyes east Indian market

Ashlok, the Chennai based manufacturer of safe earthing electrode (SEE), will expand its operation in eastern India with Kolkata based Elmech as its authorised distributor.

S Mishra, general manager-technical of Ashlok, said a research and development in collaboration with Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Chennai had led to development of the SEE.

Ashlok reported sales of Rs 5 crore in 2003-04 and of Rs 7 crore in the first six months of the current financial year, Mishra said.

The company has set a target of annualised sales of Rs 13 crore in the full year. He said a Rs 3 crore order had already been received from Reliance Energy Ltd. The company was looking at eastern India to push sales further.

"The company has already executed around 60 earthing projects worth more than Rs 7 lakh in the last 3 months for various renowned brands ", said R K Lalwani of Elmech.

The company has bagged orders from Airtel, Tata Tele and Tata Metals to be executed in the state. Though the initial cost of one SEE is nearly 40 per cent higher than the cost of ordinary traditional earthing equipment, the SEE offered a life span of nearly five times more than the traditional copper earthing wire. So its effective cost was lower, explained Mishra.

The SEE would be sold in eastern region states like West Bengal, Orissa, Assam and Bihar. The Bangladesh market would be targeted by the end of this financial year.

In the last couple of years, the company has executed overseas orders in countries like Malaysia, Mauritius and Dubai.

Ashlok is expecting to receive its Indian patent by December 2004 for its newest development - a pipe-in-pipe technology corrosion-resistant SEE.

Its products were supported by certification from Central Power Research Institute Bangalore and Central Electrical Testing Laboratory (CETL) Kakkalur.