V-Guard arm leads in inclusive growth

Vintes Solutions, a Rs 350-crore company under the V-Guard group, has adopted an outsourcing manufacturing model where its entire manufacturing and assembling of stabilisers and UPS are done out of small units in rural areas.

The company last year assembled around one million stabilisers worth about Rs 120 crore through these small units.

Currently, it has 76 small-scale units employing more than 3,000 people, mostly women, in different parts of the rural areas in southern India.

The company had entered into agreements with charitable societies and self-help groups to set up these units. These include 32 in Kerala, 17 in Tamil Nadu, 15 in Karnataka, 11 in Andhra Pradesh and one in Orissa. Vintes plans to add more such units in rural India.

This apart, it is planning to test this model for assembling small electric water heaters and fans.

According to Linson Paul , chief operating officer, Vintes Solutions, the product design is done by the V-Guard R&D after which the raw materials is supplied by the designated vendors to the small scale units. The finished products are sent to the V-Guard quality engineers again for testing and then sold in the market by V-Guard.

The concept has turned into a successful model since it is insulated from problems like attrition and unionism. Further, the productivity levels of these