Roots Industries chairman and managing director K Ramaswamy told The Financial Express that the company was in an advanced stage of sealing a deal with German auto manufacturer Mercedes Benz for the supply of air horns. "Merc has evinced keen interest in sourcing air horns from Roots. Merc officials, who examined our products, have appreciated the quality standards of Roots Industries," Ramsawamy said, adding that a supply agreement with the German auto major was in the offing.

At present, Roots has been a leading supplier to Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) in India. The companysupplies its state-of-the-art products to the who-is-who of India automobile industry, according to Ramaswamy. Roots customers' list include Telco, Mercedes Benz India Ltd, Mahindra and Mahindra, Hindustan Motors, Maruti Suzuki, Fiat Uno and Toyota Kirloskar. Besides, the company had supply contracts with a number of Indian two-wheeler manufacturers, including Bajaj Auto, TVS Suzuki and Kinetic Honda, Ramaswamy said.

Roots Industries, which was incorporated in 1989 as a private limited company, has been a dominant player in the Indian air horn market with a market share of over 60 per cent. Roots is the first Indian company to bag the ISO 9001 award for total quality management. It is the also the first horn manufacturer in Asia to bag the prestigious QS 9000:1998 certification; a quality certification instituted for excellence in the automobile industry. The company has also got the E certification from the European Union for its products.

The company had entered into a technical alliance with M/SRobert Bosch SA of Spain. By virtue of this agreement, Roots manufactures and supplies some of the top-of-the range products for Bosch for supply in India. Bosch was also talking to Roots for sourcing products for supply in the global market, Ramaswamy said. Roots, with a capacity of 3 million horns per annum, was the 11th largest horn manufacturer in the world, Ramaswamy claimed.

The company is also catering to the export market in a big way with a total exports worth at Rs 35 million last year. "We are the only Indian company to meet the Japanese quality norms. Twenty-five per cent of our total exports is to Japan," he said. Roots has also entered into a manufacturing arrangement with M/S J Osawa and Co, Japan, for manufacturing its J Horn brand for Japan, Ramaswamy said.