New orders light up IJL's path in the current fiscal

With orders for newly launched cars and CVs and plans to localise high-end lighting solutions, India Japan Lighting aims to double turnover in 2014-15.

India Japan Lighting (IJL)’s president P Sundaresan is a straight shooter. With one eye on the future and the other on an ambitious target of doubling his company’s Rs 230 croreturnover by 2014-15, his modus operandi is simple – invest in technologies of the future. IJL’s focus has now clearly turned towards the future and with it, futuristic technologies such as the Poly-Episoidal System (PES), High Intensity Discharge lamp (HID) and LED lamps. This shift in gears will see IJL use new materials and new components. This deliberate step has already borne fruit with several high-profile orders being bagged for the PES lamps.

IJL’s push to take the existing PES technology to the next level will see the high-tech lamps being partly localised in India. With most of the major components still being imported, the assembly testing and other such small works will be localised at IJL’s facility outside Chennai. IJL has already localised the levelling motors that form a part of this product.

“The most critical part of the PES lamp is the lens. Only a handful of companies worldwide can manufacture them. One of them is our joint venture partner Koito in Japan. The lens is imported from Koito. But with the assembly testing done here, a good 30 percent of the job is localised and this brings down the cost heavily,” explains Sundaresan.

Another push on the technology front is coming in the form of HID lamps. These lamps are available in plenty abroad but IJL is bringing them to India and signalling a move away from halogen lamps. “All upmarket cars like BMWs, Audis and Mercedes use these lamps. When they need to replace these lamps, they import the entire unit. In the future, I will be able to offer a localised option to them,” says P M Ganesh, general manager – marketing. IJL is also pushing LED technology in a major way by investing in R&D that looks to adapt these lamps for two-wheeler headlamps. “It is already being used in huge numbers in two-wheeler tail-lamps; we want to see these in headlamps too,” Sundaresan adds. IJL already supplies LED tail-lamp systems for the Yamaha R15. “We are also looking to take LED tail-lamps to four-wheelers and make them affordable,” he adds.



Asked if all this means a huge investment in R&D, Sundaresan says no. “For example, for PES, to develop tools, moulds and getting our overseas partners to work on this, roughly Rs 40-50 lakh has been spent. Our investment is specific to products,” he says. IJL is also looking to set up its own R&D testing facility in the near future.

At present, most of IJL’s testing happens at Lucas-TVS’ facilities across the country while some testing takes place at Koito facilities in Japan. IJL’s aim is to localise whatever testing happens at Koito. “We will not replicate Lucas-TVS’ facilities. They have some excellent equipment and it doesn’t make sense for us to duplicate them. What we want to do is test everything in India,” Sundaresan says, adding, “this will happen in two-three years’ time.” The location for this R&D testing facility is being debated as of now.

IJL has also recently bagged some significant orders in the CV segment. “As a result of the strength of our technology, we are able to get many customers. We have entered into the CV segment in a big way,” Sundaresan says. IJL customers include Tata Motors, Ashok Leyland and Daimler India Commercial Vehicles. Both PES and LED lamps are being supplied. “The CV segment doesn’t usually concentrate on lights but that is changing,” adds Ganesh. “We are already supplying headlamps to DICV and are in discussions to improve the quality of technology further,” adds Ganesh.

Getting green lights

With the entire automobile industry going green, IJL isn’t far behind. A new material called Ultem has begun seeing the light of the day and is already in trial mode with some customers. Ultem is used in the reflectors of headlamps and brings down the weight of the reflector by about 50 percent. It is also fully recyclable.

“The entire lighting industry was battling to find a replacement for the current mould of reflectors and we believe Ultem is the way to go,” Sundaresan says, adding that work has already begun for two major orders that include Ultem-based reflectors. “A small trial project with Ashok Leyland for small seven-inch Ultem-based lamps is already underway,” Ganesh confirms. To make matters better, Ultem is affordable and efficient enough to be used in cars that belong to any segment.

IJL has also bagged orders for the recently-launched MarutiErtiga for its headlamps. It also supplies headlamps to the new Tavera Neo 3, face-lifted Toyota Innova and rear lights for the Maruti Swift Dzire. “We are in talks with Nissan to provide lamps for a future project,” says Ganesh. In two-wheelers, the Honda CBR 150 carries IJL’s headlamps.

2011-12 was a tough year for IJL, with a majority of its orders being scrapped because of the floods in Thailand – which saw Honda’s production of the Brio put on hold – and the earthquake in Japan which affected plans for Toyota. The scene back home was also not that great, with the labour strike in Maruti’sManesar plant jolting the order books. This puts Sundaresan’s aim of doubling the turnover in three years further into perspective.

“For about nine months from April 2011 till the last week of January 2012, we had to shut down our orders for the Honda Brio. But ever since Honda’s recovery, we’ve started our supply for the Brio from February and with the sales going strong, we are happy,” says Ganesh.

Talking about IJL’s aftermarket operations, Ganesh is very open in saying that they never bothered with a distribution channel. “With the OEMs signing us up for spares at the initial order booking level, we know that they will take care of spares distribution,” he adds. However, both Ganesh and Sundaresan are vehement in saying that spurious products from China are available in plenty in the aftermarket and that nothing much could be done to prevent this.

KARTHIK H