GS Radiators, Australian firm in joint venture

Ludhiana-based Rs 36-crore company GS Radiators, part of the Rs 120-crore GS Group, and Australia-based $200-million Adrad Group, are coming up with a joint venture for the production of aluminum and industrial radiators, to be sold in the Australian market.

Under their agreement, Adrad will invest $10 million in plant equipment while GS Radiators will spend almost Rs 5 crore on land and building. Of the total share, GS Radiators has spent close to Rs 2.5 crore and also bought a 3-acre plot close to its factory on Grand Trunk Road here, where the new production facility will come up.

The project is expected to start in a year and will have a production capacity of 100,000 radiators.

Adrad is an Australian company founded in 1985, with a staff of just four, and now has a market share of more than 90 per cent in Australia. In 2002, Adrad branched out into the New Zealand market and in September last year, it acquired another Australian company called Natra, the biggest Australian manufacturer of automotive radiators, for 100 million Australian dollars.

Speaking to Business Standard, Gary Washington, managing director, Adrad Pvt Ltd, said his firm had been doing business with GS Radiators since 2000.

"Both Adrad and GS Radiators are third-generation, family-owned companies and that is why the work culture in both is almost the same. Besides, GS Radiators has very good infrastructure and can deliver good-quality products at low prices."

"Prior to this joint venture, we had been importing radiators worth $6-7 million from China, Taiwan and Korea for the past 15 years. But we had bad experience with companies located in these three countries and so decided to do away with them. Now, all that business will shift to GS Radiators. After this project starts, we expect our turnover to double in five years," he said.

GS Radiators Managing Director Ranjodh Singh said, "Under this joint venture, we will develop products and technologies and will also explore new markets. Together, we are also planning to explore the US market, the biggest radiator market in the world. After the project commences, we expect our turnover to double in a couple of years. This project is not time-bound and we are hoping to pass it on to our next generation."

Recently GS Radiators got an order to supply industrial radiators worth $2 million to three US-based companies. With this order, it became the biggest radiator-manufacturing company of India to get such a big order for the US market.

The firm was in talks with Ex Mark in Minneapolis, Husker Power Products in Phoenix and Kirkland Ltd in Wilson Wille since June 2005 and their orders finally matured during the Automotive Aftermarket Products Expo held in Las Vegas from October 30 to November 1 last year.

GS Radiators is exporting industrial radiators to almost all European companies through its warehousing facility in Rotterdam.