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 It is easy to miss the new facility of Sanheay Batteries off the Pune-Nashik highway at Chakan. Once there, a different picture unfolds in front. The facility, manufacturing LaBatt brand of batteries, appears ‘busy’ with the manufacture and dispatch of batteries progressing at a brisk pace. The 35,000 sq.ft plant would be manufacturing around 10,000 units of lead acid batteries and about 5,60,000 units of plates per month, which would serve stationary applications, automobile and multi-product industries in the country. Visible from the range of batteries being produced at the facility is an amount of thrust on penetrating the automotive market. The current range of automotive batteries on offer by the company includes the ones that find application in two-wheelers, four-wheelers, commercial vehicles and off-highway equipment. Next come the lead acid storage batteries.
 Announces S N Singh, Chief Executive Officer, Sanheay Batteries, “Power shortage, increasing population of vehicles and the upsurge in uninterruptible power supply requirement in India offers the opportunity for a viable business proposition for this range of power products. Recessionary trends are a thing of the past now and steady growth in the manufacturing sectors has shown an upward swing owing to domestic demand. The direct linkage of these industries to our sector will provide us with new opportunities to explore this market that will further boost industrial production. The launch of LaBatt is aimed towards achieving this goal.” While the company was officially registered in July 2009, the production at the new plant was flagged off on November 28.
 In addition to automotive batteries, the company, as mentioned above, also manufactures lead acid storage batteries that find application in areas like UPS systems and power inverters. While the presence in the automotive and storage battery sector is expected to enable the company reach good numbers, in the first phase, the company plans to target the replacement market to satisfy the increasing demand from end users. In the second year the company plans to move into the OEM arena. “This will allow us enough time to get the necessary certifications and the other bits in place,” Singh says. The company has, as of now, appointed 11 super-stockists and 30 distributors across the country. Adds Singh: “With our chain of dealers we are confident of making our product available in every part of India. This will be backed by proper service.” Already, 11 consignments have been dispatched to super-stockists.
 According to S N Singh, this was made possible by the production of plates and batteries starting a few months in advance, and before the actual operations were flagged from the new plant. “We had in stock 12,000 batteries before the official date of inauguration of this facility,” he reveals. Before moving into this facility, the company produced batteries at a smaller facility located in the industrial suburb of Pimpri-Chinchwad. Delving into the finer aspects of the new facility, Singh points out that the new facility was set up in just 90 working days. The cost of the plant, raw materials and other resources has worked out to Rs 9 crore.
 He explains further: “We have 80 workers right now and are planning to expand the number of employees to 400 within a few months.” Interestingly, most of the processes at the new facility are automated. Ask Singh about taking on the competition that comes in the form of established and well-known brands like Amaron, Exide, Tata Green and others and he informs that they are too big to be matched at this point in time. “Tests and feedback reports,” he states, “have proved that our quality is as good as theirs and therefore it is but a matter of time before we compete with them.” Meanwhile, what may work for the LaBatt brand is the pricing. “We are keeping our prices lower by 7 to 8 per cent as compared to the other established brands. Also, dealers and retailers are given enough margin between the factory price and the selling price to be able to decide how much discount they would like to pass on to the customer,” Singh reveals.
 With the battery market in India pegged at Rs 20,700 crore that covers all the three application areas of invertors, automobiles and industrial use, Sanheay Batteries is aiming to become a Rs 500 crore company by 2015. That implies a market share of about 2.5 per cent. In its second phase of expansion, the LaBatt brand will be introduced into the foreign markets, especially in South East Asian and African countries. “We are particularly interested in the African market because they face power shortage problems similar to India. We have already set up an office in Dubai to look after our international operations,” Singh informs.
 Available in two types – LaBatt Tubular and Labatt Grid with extra power, Singh highlights the technical USPs of the LaBatt brand. He points out that its products for two-wheelers and other vehicles provide instant cranking, high energy density, high charge acceptance, polyethylene envelope separators with glass matt and resistance to vibrations while those for inverters and UPS systems have a micro-controller-based design, selectable battery option, pre-loaded battery management software, regulated battery charging from 120V to 270V and audio and visual alarms.
Ever since the first battery was invented by Thomas Edison more than 100 years ago, the demand for batteries has witnessed a remarkable increase and according to an industry report, the global battery demand will increase 4.8 per cent annually through 2012. “China will record the largest gains and surpass the US as the largest market. Consumer battery demand will outperform the market as a whole. Non-lead-acid secondary battery market gains will outpace demand for primary and lead-acid secondary batteries,” the report states.
Meanwhile, what can be counted as real good news for LaBatt is the quick turnaround in the auto sector after its short downward spiral during the recessionary phase. The automobile industry in India is the ninth largest in the world and in 2009 India emerged as Asia’s fourth largest exporter of automobiles, behind Japan, South Korea and Thailand. Several Indian automobile manufacturers such as Tata Motors, Maruti Suzuki and Mahindra and Mahindra have expanded their domestic and international operations. In February 2009, the monthly sales of passenger cars in India exceeded 1,00,000 units. And now, in November 2009, India’s major automobile makers have reported a record 63 per cent increase in their sales. Ask S N Singh his company’s growth plans in the near future and all he says is, “We are entering the battery market at the right time.”
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