In mid 2009, amidst the aftermath of the global financial crisis, Prasan Firodia, a graduate from London’As Regent College, took over the reins of Force Motors from his father, Abhay. Today, the company is the largest van maker in the country with over 60 per cent market share. It is now planning capacity expansion worth Rs 300 crore in FY17.
Streamlining the organisation, raising professional standards and making the company, formerly known as Bajaj Tempo, more market-centric rather than product, helped it stay competitive, according to young Firodia who firmly advocated the upgradation of IT infrastructure in the back-end to improve data transactions.
It all started with Jaya Hind Industries (promoted by Firodias), and its history of joint ventures; beginning with Jamnalal Sons (the Bajaj family) in 1947 to build autorickshaws. Bajaj Tempo was set up a decade later — a three way JV between Vidal & Sohn TempoWerke, the Bajaj family, and the Firodias — that was later rechristened as Force Motors in 2005.
“Today, we have a controlling stake in Force Motors. But we don’t have any business with the Bajaj family. We just had cross-holdings in each other’s companies. Bajaj Auto owned 21 per cent in Force Motors and the Firodia family owns 9-10 per cent in Bajaj Auto,” explains Firodia. Bajajs exited Force Motors in 2014, but that did not ruffle the Firodias.
He claims the company to be completely debt free with strong cash reserves; its market cap tripled in the last two years to Rs 5,663.78 crore.
Force Motors’ association with German auto major Daimler brought in significant credibility for the company, and opportunity to assemble Mercedes OM616 engines and the Mercedes Transporter. Today, the engines and axles of all Mercedes and BMW cars made in India are assembled at Force Motors’ new plants inaugurated under Firodia’s leadership.
Under his leadership, Force Motors entered into the field of personal vehicles with Force One and extreme off-roader Gurkha. But that move didnt go very well for the company.
Firodia in an interview admitted underestimating the design and style requirements of its personal cars, but says has no regrets. He was quoted saying that the DNA of the company was not really tuned to personal cars. However, all of that helped the company to move SUV technology to other products. This clearly marks his instinctive ability and the clarity in the management strategies with regard to his position. A mark of a good leader indeed!
At Jaya Hind, Firodia focused on harnessing latest technologies from world leaders in the field of casting, setting up world class manufacturing facilities, and implementing total quality management. He has been instrumental in transforming the company to be a preferred supplier to almost all leading national and international automobile manufacturers for high precision and critical components such as cylinder blocks, cylinder heads, bed plates, transmission cases, etc.
With the launch of two large vans recently, Traveller Royale and Traveller Super, the margins of the brands have witnessed good spike. “The fact that we currently have a 67 per cent market share with the Traveller shows that we are clearly dominating this segment and are very well positioned as the largest van maker in the country,” says Firodia.
BW Reporters
Naina Sood is a Economics graduate and has done her post graduation in International economics and Trade. She has deep interests in Indian economy and reforms