Tucked away behind large complexes of towering apartment blocks in Manesar, Haryana, the hum of injection-moulding and die-casting machines fills the air in a smallish factory. Hundreds of small components, some no larger than a thumbnail, are assembled by factory workers, many of them women, into larger assemblies and eventually into two-wheeler switchgear and grips. Trucks then ship these components to virtually every two-wheeler manufacturer across the country. And even globally.
This was the first major factory established by Uno Minda. And it isn’t just two-wheelers, virtually every vehicle that comes out of a factory in India has components manufactured by this company or its subsidiaries. The company makes all sorts of components, from seats to digital controllers, infotainment systems, sunroof assemblies, and more. The electric motor and controllers on the new Tata Punch EV is also an Uno Minda product. And the famous dancing taillights on the Mahindra BE 6, too. And, the company is also the sole supplier of a component used by Rolls Royce.
The company began as a small vehicle workshop in Delhi soon after independence in 1958. When Nirmal Minda, son of the founder Shadi Lal Minda, took over in 1975, it was still a small 30-person operation. But now, the company closed the last financial year ending March with consolidated revenues of close to Rs 20,000 crore. Today it has 37,000 employees and 75 manufacturing facilities, small and big, across India and five international markets.
Partnerships and growth
Nirmal Minda told me at his office that while his trusted lieutenants run the show now, he still has a strategic vision for the company. “When I took over in 1975, we were a controlled economy, things were difficult, but when Maruti started in the 1980s and there was a need to localise, I saw an opportunity.”
Travelling to Japan, he approached Tokai Rika, a subsidiary of Toyota, to explore a partnership to manufacture the switches and knobs on the Maruti 800.
“I spent several weeks in Japan learning the processes as well as Japanese manufacturing philosophy,” Minda said. Soon afterward, he formed a joint venture called MindaRika to manufacture these switchgears for Maruti. In fact, that factory sits beside the UnoMinda plant in Manesar. This partnership helped UnoMinda build credibility with potential partners across the world.
“Many companies want to take advantage of the Indian automotive market, and we provide them a pathway,” Minda said. In the past few months alone, he has established joint ventures and technical partnerships with several firms. A partnership with Japanese firm TACHI-S, for example, will build complete seat sets for cars. It might not sound like much, but considering that car seats are getting more complex with multiple motors, ventilation, heating, and even massage functions on top models, Minda sees this as a major growth area. And then there is Minda’s partnership with another Toyota subsidiary, Aisin, to manufacture sunroof kits in India — both single pane and panoramic sets.
According to Minda, several of the components that Uno Minda and its subsidiaries are making were hitherto imported. It isn’t limited to the systems mentioned above, but things like tyre-pressure measuring systems (TPMS) were also completely imported. “While these are partnerships, these also help fulfil ‘Make In India’ objectives. And in fact, for car companies that want Performance Linked Incentive (PLI) benefits, increased localisation helps,” M;inda said.
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Chasing self-sufficiency
Uno Minda’s latest partnership will play a critical role — tying up with Chinese firm Inovance to build motors and drive controllers for electric vehicles. The partnership, which has received Press Note 3 approval from the government, is already supplying motors for the Tata Punch EV, and Minda hopes that the venture will move from assembly to full-scale manufacturing within a couple of years.
But he also highlighted that 70 per cent of his company’s revenues come from the parent firm. “Joint ventures help us build competencies but we are also working closely with automotive companies to develop things in-house,” he said. The most famous example of this are the ‘dancing’ tail-lights on the Mahindra BE 6, which was co-developed by Uno Minda and Mahindra.
“We work very closely with our partners on developing breakthrough products. We have large advanced R&D facilities in India and abroad and to showcase our abilities we even designed and built our own electric two-wheeler last year, which even won a Red Dot industrial design award,” Minda said, before hastily adding that Uno Minda has no plans to ever build their own vehicles. “But this is all key to the vision of an aatmanirbhar Bharat”.
Growth will continue at a rapid pace for the company, Minda believes, “We will grow 1.5x of the overall automotive industry”. His rationale being that younger buyers want ‘more’ in their vehicles — more technology and more features. That is clearly evident in the partnerships that Uno Minda is working on, and also in some future projects.
Kushan Mitra is an automotive journalist based in New Delhi. He tweets @kushanmitra. Views are personal.
(Edited by Aamaan Alam Khan)