AMW also has an auto components business and that is a little bit of a stable story because it has been catering to a wide range of customers in trucks, passenger cars and agricultural tractors. "Of course, the overall automotive market went through a tough period and we had built adequate capacities to serve that market. As a result, while that business has grown year on year, it did not get into the volumes that we were expecting. Now with the volumes coming in, that business has started to scale up."

The vision: Version 2.0
Currently there are seven players in the heavy duty trucks market in India. And Anirudh is proud that AMW created the premium tipper segment as it is now known to be. "We are the player with the largest amount of truck population in the market owing to the first mover advantage.

"So we have got the customers, we have got the products, we got the product lifecycle done at the customer end, we got the distribution infrastructure and service support in place, hereon forward, our target is to exploit this completely and get back to the volumes. Our vision is to be the leader in the construction and mining segment in the country."

AMW's R&D centre in New Mumbai is core in terms of developing new products and new capabilities in the company. "Now the emission norms are around the corner, so we are developing a completely new range of trucks with new cabins, new engines, new suspensions, and many more new changes. In short, it is going to be the Version 2.0 of AMW trucks, which we are going to launch very soon."

So what will be significantly different in the Version 2.0? "Everything," he says. "The look and feel; we are coming out with a brand new cab. We are in fact coming out with a brand new platform; the chassis will be different. "The engine systems will be different, the suspensions will be different. So it's an absolute evolution from the trucks that we have been bringing in the markets over the last five years."

AMW was the first to bring in the premium products and they are now beginning to shift gears. "Version 2.0 is a complete makeover of the products and owing to the change in the markets and owing to the dawn of a new economy, we believe that Version 2.0 is going to be the homecoming of AMW," Anirudh says.
END