MPW 2015: Scion Arathi Krishna is behind TVS' stellar growth in past decade

Arathi Krishna likes to dirty her hands on the shop floor by operating machines at least twice a week. The efforts of the 47-year-old Joint Managing Director of Sundram Fasteners are yielding results.

The revival of the domestic automotive market has meant that auto ancillary players such as Sundram Fasteners, Bosch, GKW and Lakshmi Precision Tools have benefitted. However, Sundram Fasteners, a part of the TVS Group, has done better than some of its peers.

In the last financial year, its income rose 16 per cent to Rs 3,238 crore. However, rising input costs meant that net profit grew just 9 per cent to Rs 131.94 crore. The performance has not gone unnoticed on the bourses. The company's stock has given a return of more than 18 per cent over the last 12 months, more than twice the rise in the Bombay Stock Exchange Sensex during the period.

Firstcall Research, in a recent report on the company, said that auto component is one of the country's rising industries with tremendous growth prospects. "From a low-key supplier providing components to the domestic market, the industry has emerged as one of the key auto component centres in Asia and is today seen as a significant player in the global automotive supply chain. India is now a supplier of a range of high-value and critical automobile components to global auto makers such as General Motors, Toyota, Ford and Volkswagen, among others. The industry currently accounts for almost seven per cent of India's gross domestic product and employs about 19 million people, both directly and indirectly," said the report.

It said Sundram Fasteners, the first Indian component manufacturing company to have won the prestigious TPM Excellence and Consistency Award from the Japan Institute of Plant Maintenance, was well-positioned to take advantage of this growth.

Sundram Fasteners makes high-tensile fasteners, engine components, pump fuel assembly, radiator caps, gear shifters, nozzle rings, hubs and tyre carriers. It earns a little over a third of its revenue from exports.

Sundram Fasteners has been one of the early entrants into the China market. With its premium positioning and emphasis on quality, it has tried to keep ahead of competition in the local market also. And Krishna, the fourth-generation family scion, is making sure it stays ahead.