Amul Ind to produce mini tractors by March 2012

Forges alliance with Escorts Group

Rajkot-based Amul Industries Private Limited has forged alliance with Escorts Group for manufacturing mini tractor in the city. For this, both Amul and Escorts had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in August and formed a special purpose vehicle named Adico Escorts Pvt. Ltd. in December 2011.

"We will start mini tractor production at Rajkot by end of March 2012 and the same should be on road by April. While in the initial stages we will produce about 15 tractors per day, we will eventually expand it by doubling capacity as per requirement," said Suresh Santoki, managing director, Amul Group of Companies. Currently, Amul Industries is a regular supplier of auto parts to Escorts Group.

According to Santoki, the total cost of the mini tractor project is around Rs 100 crore wherein Amul Industries will be pumping in about Rs 50 crore. "So far Amul has invested around Rs 25 crore in this project," said Santoki while refusing to divulge the details regarding equity sharing in the JV.

A leading global manufacturer of automotive components, Amul Industries serves almost every major vehicle manufacturer worldwide. Headquartered in Rajkot, Amul has manufacturing units at various locations in India with workforce of 2000 plus people. The company currently supplies parts to auto companies like Tata, Maruti, Mahindra, Ashok Layland, and John Deeere among many others.

After Mahindra and Mahindra, Escort Group is the second multinational group that entered in Rajkot for mini tractors production.

Mahindra has been producing mini tractor in collaboration with city-based Field Marshal Group since 2009 at Rajkot and recently expanded their production capacity from 1800 units to 2500 units per year. Rajkot based captain tractors also producing mini tractors since last four years. About 25-30 branded and non branded companies are busy to produce below 25 HP tractors in this area.