Please take us through the company’s journey.
Sidwal Refrigeration is an ISO 9001-2008 and IRIS (International Railways Industries Standards) certified company. We entered the air-conditioning and refrigeration industry in 1974. Through extensive in-house research and development, we have produced excellent products acclaimed for their distinguished quality for more than 40 years. The company pioneered the all-indigenous development of Roof Mounted Modular Compact Air Conditioner for Rail Coaches in 1991. Since then the company has supplied more than 16,000 such AC Units duly tested and approved by Research Design & Standards Organization (RDSO), Ministry of Railways, and Government of India for higher speed trains like Shatabdi Express, Rajdhani Express for Indian Railways.
We also supplied air-conditioners for the luxury prestigious tourist trains ‘Palace on Wheels’ for Rajasthan Tourism Development Corporation (RTDC), Deccan Odyssey and Maharaja Express.
What are the solutions and services offered by the company?
We have established niche in HVAC in the field of mobile applications (e.g. railways, metro, buses etc) and applications in defence, telecom shelters, telecom switch gear rooms and commercial establishments. We also pioneered position in the Indian Railways (Mainline as well as Metro) with solid past history with Indian Railways and Metro.
What are the trends in Indian HVACR market? How has the cooling market evolved in India as compared to the global market?
- Hugely potential business segments in upcoming 10-15 years for demand driven Railways, defence, telecom/IT, bus air conditioning, drinking water coolers. Each segment has huge potential for significant growth cycle.
• Huge demand for AC coaches for rising incomes and standard of living.
• Increase in coach production capacities to 5000 by year 2020, and to 10,000 in next few years – with higher (70%) proportion of AC coaches therein.
• New rail tracks and trains (including double decker AC trains, larger number of AC coaches).
• Indian Railways HVAC business is expected to grow significantly from now.
• Special Focus on Railway in GOI’s ‘Make in India’ policy.
The Government of India launched 100 Smart cities project. What opportunities do you look forward for your company?
• We are well positioned to grow with the industry ‘Only Indian vendor approved by DMRC for supply of HVAC units for Metro Coaches’.
• Enhanced indigenization will prompt all coach OEMs to opt for DMRC approved experienced vendors.
The Government of India has launched ‘Make in India’ campaign in order to make the country as a manufacturing hub. How has it helped the company to expand its footprint in India? How many manufacturing plants do you have in India?
• Make in India policy of Government of India will bring growth in Indian HVAC Sector nearly 30% to over Rs 20,000 crore over the next two years, which will be much higher than 7-8% annual growth in past few years.
• Defence offset policy, rapid expansion of Metro network, increasing conversion of non ac coaches to ac coaches in railways, greater ‘Green’ technology awareness, robust growth of the real estate, hospitality, health and education sectors are all likely to accelerate the growth for HVAC industry.
• Our significant market share in each of the segments that it is operating in reiterates its international standard product quality, reliability and customer trust on us.
• It is one of the very few manufacturers in India for HVAC solutions that meet international quality standards. It is an approved supplier to most of the prestigious customers in the domestic market.
• Products, services and market penetration have evolved over time to meet the dynamics of customer demands over the past 40 years across diverse sectors from railways to defence, telecom &bus.
• We have two fully equipped and modern production facilities at Faridabad (Haryana, Near New Delhi) and KalaAmb (Sirmour, Himachal Pradesh).
• Manufacturing facilities are well designed to accommodate a wide variety of manufacturing processes, tests and R&D.
What kind of technical innovation would you like to incorporate in your solutions or products to make them more energy efficient and cost efficient?
• Our products are already energy-efficient and cost-efficient and competing with the international products in the HVAC market.
• Product innovations are expected to further strengthen group’s reputation as a leader in product quality.
• In house manufacturing of majority of components ensure efficient control mechanism on both quality & cost of the end products. Cooling coils, condenser coils, blowers, motors, PCB’s, FRP moulding, electrical panels produced in-house provide the cutting edge benefit over the competition.
What are the growth drivers for your business?
• Capitalize on Leading Market Position: For defence HVAC, we have unique strength for its exclusive arrangement with BEL (Govt enterprise having almost 70% market share and preferential treatment by Ministry of Defence).
• Leverage Installed Base and Customer Relationship: Sidwal has decades old business relationship its principal customer base (e.g. railways, DMRC, MOD and DOT).
• Increased Operational Efficiency and Margin Improvement
• Leverage Strategic Advantage with Govt of India’s Initiative: ‘Make in India’ will help in sustaining our market leadership and grow with huge demand curve in specialized HVAC segment.
What are the stumbling blocks faced by the company during providing your services? How do you overcome the same?
The only hurdle – perhaps we may face is the tendency of global operators to seek supplies from their own associated companies elsewhere; but with huge local support and pricing advantage, its best placed to even become preferred vendor for global operators for their Indian supplies.
What is your outlook for HVACR industry for 2017-18?
We look forward to a potential growth in the HVACR industry due to hugely buoyant Railway segment (both Mainline as well as Metro) for huge capital expenditure plans by Government, capacity expansion by Railways for coach manufacturing and drive to increase AC coaches, and upcoming new metro projects in other Indian cities.
