The Rs 2,500-crore Yash Birla Group is foraying into the high growth agriculture machinery segment through a tie up with agro machinery and engine major Yanmar of Japan for manufacturing power tillers by early 2008. The company, with its ?Birla Harit? brand of power tillers, plans to capture a 10-15% share of the power tillers market in India in a year?s time. The tillers market currently stands at 30,000 in volume terms per year, with major players like VST Tillers Tractors Ltd and KAMCO (Kerala Agro Machineries Corp Ltd) comprising almost 60% of the market. While the company will source engines from Yanmar, it has tied up with Chinese company Yeuda for chassis and will source most of the other components for the business from India. The tillers will roll out of the company?s Dehradun facility by January-February 2008, according to sources.
This is a natural progression of the group, which, under its power solutions business comprising Birla Power and Birla Electricals, already manufactures inverters, portable generators, higher KVA gensets and multipurpose engines (from 80 cc to 256 cc) and pumps, apart from domestic electric appliances. The company plans to make upto 4,000 power tillers annually, and is targeting revenues of around Rs 50 crore a year.
The group plans to introduce the tillers first in the north and north-east parts of the country, where it finds a higher demand, aided by the farmer-friendly policies of the state governments there. On the whole, the demand for tillers, which are smaller and cost-effective compared to tractors, is growing in excess of 20% per annum. The company will price the tillers around Rs 1 lakh (tractors cost in the range of Rs 5 lakh and are used where large tracts of land is involved), which the company says is 5-10% cheaper than other models available in the market. The tillers will also have a unique design and the engines will be pollution compliant, sources added.