The Group currently has a land base of over 500 acres, strategically located across Chennai, NCR (Gurgaon, Noida and adjoining areas), Indore and Pune. A large part of this land base is still unutilised, making it easier for Caparo to put its expansion plans into effect.

Caparo can profitably scale up to fill these capacities and yield more than INR 30bn of revenues by 2010. This would make Caparo India one of the largest Tier I vendors.

The Caparo Group was founded by Lord Swraj Paul, a first generation entrepreneur, who combined strong ethics, astute business acumen and hard work to create a vast business empire in less than 4 decades. The same business philosophy and ethics have been extended by his son Angad Paul in developing the India business.

Caparo India is run by an independent and professional set of managers drawn from premier auto component companies in India. Unlike normal trade practices, this senior team has been put in place much in advance of the actual com mencement of production at some of the plants

Caparo has also invested in setting up a very robust and effective management information system (MIS), reflective of the professional nature of management and the strong corporate governance in place.

Caparo, being a relatively late entrant to the automotive industry in India, has developed its key infrastructure over the last 2- 3 years. However, this has given Caparo the ability to set up new facilities and employ ‘Best Practices’ in terms of manufacturing equipment and processes. This is a key differentiator over competitors, who still rely on facilities and processes that were set up in a very different industry scenario.

The strong focus on manufacturing facilities and processes has also resulted in Caparo having the lowest rejection rates in the country. For the last 6 months, Caparo has been the #1 of 101 suppliers to Honda Siel, a distinction it has earned competing with Japanese vendors of Honda cars in India.

Caparo has the unique distinction of being the only Indian automotive vendors with product capabilities ranging from metal pressing to forging, aluminium castings, tubing and fasteners.

Caparo is an approved vendor to practically all major OEMs across the passenger car, commercial vehicle and two-wheeler segments in the country – another distinction available with very few automotive vendors in India.

Caparo’s large management team has extensive relationships across all IPOs in India and are leveraging these rela-
tionships to drive export business.

Caparo has been able to leverage these product capabilities in reaching out to its diversified customer base and being able to cross-sell various products to the same customer. This position insulates Caparo from the risk of product obsolescence as well as makes it neutral to the market share position within OEMs in the country. Moreover, the ability to sell a cross-section of products to the same set of customers will enable Caparo to out-grow their competitors at a much
faster pace.

Caparo India’s superior design and development capabilities are a key differentiator vis-à-vis competitors. Tool room facilities, such as Caparo’s sophisticated tool room set up in Chennai, are available with a couple of leading independent specialist tool room companies in India, but no other auto component manufacturers has such facilities in-house.

Focus on technology is another aspect which will assist Caparo India in enhancing their profitability as there is a sig nificant difference in the operating margins of ‘build-to-print’ products and engineered and designed components and assemblies.

As the Indian automotive industry gets more focussed on technology upgradation and produces automobiles for global consumption, there is a greater tendency for OEMs to develop strategic relationships with vendors who are interested in technology and who can partner them in meeting stringent quality norms.

The Group intends to continue passing on their technologies employed in European and North American markets, a key differentiator with other competitors who have to rely on external partners to get access to such technologies.