Eastman to enter auto accessories

Auto ancillary Eastman Industries will soon float a new auto accessory brand in the country to consolidate its presence in the domestic market as it anticipates a near five-fold jump in top line to touch Rs 1,000 crore by 2010-11.

As much as 80 per cent of Eastman Industries' revenues comes from overseas markets which include Mexico, Columbia and China.

The company's primary business includes sourcing completely built two-wheelers and three-wheelers from Chinese manufacturers and selling them in the Latin American region.

"Going forward, our aim is to become a Rs 1,000 crore group by 2010-11 and we cannot achieve this target without consolidating in the domestic market. The company is taking a slew of initiatives which include floating an auto accessory brand 'Addo Glitz'," Eastman Industries Director Shekhar Singhal said.

He said apart from the auto accessory brand, the company would start manufacturing automotive batteries and tractor components for domestic and international markets.

Eastman will formally launch its auto accessory brand in the last week of this month and is looking at independent retail operations over the next couple of years.

"The market for auto accessories is not well-defined and is unorganised. The market for these products is huge, considering the kind of growth India's auto industry has seen over the past few year. We want to grab this opportunity by offering a quality brand," Eastman Chief Business Manager JS Khurana said.

He said the company will introduce products across all categories of auto accessories and is targeting a majority share in the market within the very first few years of operations.

On the overseas front, the company is setting up a two-wheeler assembly line in China with a capacity of two lakh units per annum.

"The two-wheeler business has shown a steady growth and contributed more than 40 per cent to our overall revenues of Rs 220 crore in the last fiscal. This growth motivated us to start assembling these products ourselves and realise better revenues," Singhal said.

Eastman markets a range of two-wheelers and three-wheelers, including motorcycles, scooters, mopeds and commercial and passenger three-wheelers under brand names Eastman, Tough and Regent.