Timken India plans diversification moves

Timken India Ltd. (TIL, a subsidiary of The Timken Company, USA) revealed it is pursuing several initiatives designed to grow and diversify the business, while at the same time targeting growth in export sales. The changes to its business are extensive enough that Timken India is actually changing and refiling its Memorandum of Association, the document which legally describes the scope of its business operations in India. Timken India Ltd. was founded in 1992. Gordon Robinson, Chairman, said, "TIL will continue on its path of improving results via three main strategies -- further increasing our output to increase export sales, further improving efficiency through the recently introduced initiatives and broadening our product offerings." Timken India's export sales, primarily to North America, jumped 229% in 2002 while sales in India grew 28%. Overall, TIL's 2002 sales were up 57%, to Rs 167.8 crore. The company said it expects 2003 will be challenging, with export demand remaining flat while Indian domestic demand grows only slightly. Mirroring the diversification efforts of other bearing manufacturers, several of Timken India's future efforts focus on value-added services not directly tied to bearing sales. Value-added services and more diversified offerings not only reduce the company's reliance on bearings for profits, but also allow it to leverage its existing customer base for more sales and more profitable sales. Areas being pursued by TIL are engineering and design consulting, along with other maintenance and technical services. TIL indicated it will continue to identify and develop areas where it has a core expertise. Timken India recently changed its fiscal year from April 1 - March 31 to the physical January 1 - December 31 year used by the parent company.