AutoPartsAsia | FEBRUARY 2018 | 29the car: the individual car owner or
Uber,” he said.
Today the truckers and fleet owners
are more informed than those of the
previous generation. Muralidharan
said, “We welcome this. It is very
advantageous as we are going to
give our salesmen Apps to make
orders. He will tell the end-user or
retailer the price of sale; everything
will be clear. Earlier wholesalers,
dealers and retailers came into
the picture to make things foggy.
Today, the customer or end-user
will come to me knowing the
price-point is right; that’s what we
want him to do. The increasing
awareness level suits us because
we don’t want to be in a market
where, earlier, ‘with or without bill’
was the rule. People did not know
the repair cost of a vehicle. It suits
us when customers get educated.
That’s why our training programmes
are directed towards the last level
of electricians. The organised larger
companies will prefer this. Increasing
education for awareness from any
quarter will help LIS because that’s the
game we want to play.”
Future-ready
LIS is preparing to face the future,
Muralidharan said. For the e-rickshaws,
which run in a few towns and cities,
especially in Uttar Pradesh, it has the
battery, their cardinal part, and many
other key parts. “We are creating
common rail solutions for BS-VI. When
a company wins an OE business, one
thing that the customer expects is
service. When preparing for BS-VI it is
a distinct advantage. It is a sort of an
‘Intel Inside’ concept. If you have a LIS
service inside, the vehicle manufacturer
knows that he can manage,” he said.
Muralidharan said the support to
OEMs will be multi-fold. “We have no
problem in supplying to OEMs as we
do not consider that the OE channel
is contrary to LIS. We feel both the
channels can co-exist to exterminate
the spurious, reconditioned and other
sorts of counterfeits. The LIS channel
will be developed by service, joint
campaigns and joint work with OEMs.
Inside it may have a Lucas-TVS orDelphi-TVS part but the OEMs will be
sure that the service from LIS will be
complete; they need not run around for
any product,” he said.
This is the service even the
multinational aftermarket companies
claim to do. They supply to OEMs
and sell in the aftermarket.Where or
what is the value-addition by LIS?
Muralidharan’s answer is “We do not
claim to be the only people serving
OEMs, but the difference is while a
particular supplier caters only to the
OEM he supplies to, we are focused
on all manufacturers. We are multi-
brand, and multi-vehicle. We do not
limit our reach to Ashok Leyland,Tata
or Mahindra. It is in this that we have a
clear competitive edge. We are brand-
neutral when it comes to an OEM; the
vehicle manufacturer is immaterial for
us. Servicing an OEM is an advantage
for both channels; I don’t see any
conflict.”The other advantage in service is
concentrating on different channels.
“We had for decades a channel on
trucks and buses, once the backbone
of this country. We are entering tractor
service; Lucas India Tractor Service has
started in UP. We will shortly start Lucas
India Bike Service because these are
sectors having an OEM,and a roadside
garage that needs technology. We
can serve the mechanic with genuine
parts and train him how to service.
Going to different channels through
service would be one of our USPs in
the long-run,” he said. LIS plans to
introduce service for two-wheelers in
the next few months. Similarly, it will
soon offer service for multi-brand cars
and expand the service offered to
tractors. “We will be present across all
channels with multi-brand service. We