Pinnacle Industries focuses on specialty seating
Pinnacle Industries Limited, the bus seating and interior company, with the support of its new division, Pinnacle Speciality Vehicles, targets a turnover of Rs 500 crore by 2020. “With our new venture into the speciality vehicle segments like motohomes, business vans, magnifica tourer etc, where we offer cosmetic changes to complete transformations for vehicles segment for both commercial and personal use. With our new plant, which is now operational, we expect good growth and to hit the target,” Sudhir Mehta, Chairman and Managing Director, Pinnacle Industries Limited, said.
Set up in 1996 in Pithampur, Madhya Pradesh, Pinnacle produces automotive interiors, seating systems and components. Over the years the company has invested in and expanded its technology partnerships, manufacturing systems, and product range. “Investment has been made last year in the new facility. We presented our speciality vehicles at Auto Expo 2018 and received a good response. These units are now in the market. The plant is operational and we will be able to increase the capacity of our facility. We believe that speciality vehicles will be the important segment for us to go forward.”
About the best practices followed
in the facility, Mehta said, the company meets all the quality and environmental regulations. The facility is also equipped with robots which bring in more output. “There is a lot of automation in the plant. Most of our welding and a few other things are done by robots and we are planning to increase the number. This is done mainly to bring in quality products. With automation coming in, humans will not be used less. This means more output per man. We want to make sure that we are in line with the global standards,” he said.
A leader in the seating systems, the firm witnesses a couple of trends in the Indian market, with comfort remaining as the prime aspect. “Comfort will always remain as a trend in the Indian market. It will be mostly in the bus segment, where people travel for a longer distance. With the electric vehicles coming in, light weighting is becoming more important now. This is because the weight has become a major criteria. With this, the seats are getting lighter. Another major trend is that, many are focussed on the safety parameters. For the upcoming trends, we have made light-weight seats. We have planned to use more aluminum in seats, to make the much lighter,” he said.
Pinnacle, from its very beginning, has developed strategic technological alliances with several market leaders like Saporiti Italia (Italy), LAM (Italy), Farplas (Turkey), ISAF (Italy), Vental (Spain), Hapro International B.V. (Netherlands) and VDL Bus Velno BV (Netherlands) to achieve highest quality and service standards in the industry. The company has also been working with major OEMs that include Ashok Leyland, Daimler, Deccan Auto, Eicher, Force Motors, Man Force Trucks, Mercedes-Benz, Scania, Tata Motors, Volvo etc. The company exports to Europe ainly for the aftermarkets. “We are always in line with the new product launches of our partners. We are very much in line with their vehicle programs and when a new program comes in our production begins.”
Mehta said that the major difference between them and their competitors will be the company’s development capability. “We do not just supply the brand. What we do is, we start with production design, engineering and other things in-house. With this, we are able to handle a lot of varieties. Especially, the commercial vehicle segment is very peculiar as we have high variety, low volume and our products’ cycle time are becoming less,” Mehta said.
With many of their products coming in from the in-house design, they hold the best R&D which focuses only on their strengths. The firm has applied for patents and is looking for new developments too. They invest 4-5% of their turnover in the R&D. Speaking about the interior design market, Mehta said, the taste of the people is changing and the segment will continue to grow. With the EVs coming in, Pinnacle is working with many top firms for the interiors too. “As the automotive segment is growing, the interior design segment will also keep growing,” he said.