Hind Rectifiers Ltd (Hirect) started its journey way back in 1958. As the new age CEO, how satisfied are you with the progress achieved by the organisation in the last sixty years?
Personally, I have absolutely no complaints. Over the years Hind Rectifiers, or popularly known as Hirect, has created a great brand value and a very respectable positioning in the industry. I can proudly say that we have a legacy of world-class products running in the field since many decades. Starting from Kolkata Tramways and leading into Mumbai Monorail and everything in between.
Not a lot of companies can say that they have withstood the test of time and lasted 60 years and are now on a high growth trajectory.
Who are your key competitors and what is your market share vis-a-vis these rivals?
We have a very diverse product portfolio today, and we compete with a variety of different companies in each segment. Most of the companies that we compete with are multinational conglomerates.
As far as market share goes, there are certain products where we have a lesser market share but in a few it goes up to about 65 percent or more.
I understand that Hirect has four business divisions which include Equipment, Traction, Semiconductor and Trading. Which division has been growing faster in the recent times?
Equipment division caters to our industrial segment where we offer transformer rectifiers for ESP (electrostatic precipitators), active harmonics filter, tailor made rectifiers for a variety of applications such as electro chlorination, plating, runway lighting and cathodic protection and Hirect's expertise - water cooled rectifiers.
Traction division is our railways division that caters to all the locomotive and coach manufacturing facilities of Indian Railways. We supply all types of transformers, IGBT converters, power systems, rectifiers, electronics and control software. Our traction division has been growing quite rapidly and will continue to do so, mostly attributed to the significant growth being witnessed by the Indian Railways.
Tell us about your manufacturing capabilities.
We have three plants across India. First one is in Mumbai, where we manufacture traction equipment and semiconductor devices. The largest and oldest of the three plants.
The next one is in Nasik, where we have recently undergone an expansion and moved the entire equipment division. This plant is having tremendous capacity and highest form of operational efficiency, we have implemented the Theory of Constraints (ToC) to ensure fastest output.
Finally, we have our Dehradun plant, which has recently been renovated to accommodate traction transformers exclusively. By doing so, we are at capacity to manufacture close to about 15 to 20 units of traction transformers per month, which is one of the highest rate of production in our industry.
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