Big firms seek more vendors in Uttarakhand

Several large companies, such as Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra, Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd and Delphi-TVS, are looking for more vendors in Uttarakhand, a hub of small and medium enterprises.

According to market sources, the reason is products from Uttarakhand have been found to be cost-effective and competitive. Tata Motors, which has a manufacturing unit at Pantnagar, is broadening its vendor base in the hill state. The company has already established nearly 75 vendors at Pantnagar. “We are looking for Tier-II and Tier-III vendors with technical capacity to supply to our Tier-I vendors,” said Nitin B Tilak, deputy general manager, utilities and maintenance, at the company’s Pantnagar facility.

Tata Motors currently sources about 75 per cent of its requirements from its vendor park at Pantnagar.

Mahindra & Mahindra, which manufactures vehicles like Bolero, Alpha and Champion at its Haridwar unit, is looking for more vendors in the hill state to cater to the company’ needs. S Tripathi, deputy general manager and head of quality at M&M’s Haridwar plant, has already held talks with a few SMEs which had participated in an industrial expo at Haridwar organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in January.

Other big companies like BHEL are also looking for local vendors. “SMEs from Uttarakhand are in great demand these days because big companies want to make full use of local products in order to save money,” said Vibha Malhotra, director of the CII Uttarakhand state office. CII had organised a B2B industrial expo last month, in which a host of top companies and SMEs participated. With many big companies having come looking for small vendors, the response to the expo was very good, said Malhotra.

Sudesh Sud, plant head of Delphi-TVS, said the company was looking for vendors which can supply machined components, press components, plastic parts, rubber parts and aluminum castings. Delphi-TVS manufactures fuel injection parts at its Pantnagar plant.