India has traditionally been a strong manufacturing base for bearings. There are many home-grown players who have established strong domestic and global presence supplying their products to OEMs worldwide. KCI, one such Indian company, has become a name to reckon in the bearing industry.
Started by the Gadani family in the 1970s, KCI can pride itself as one among the few companies that who have end-to-end facilities for bearings manufacturing, all under one roof. The company has established a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility at Surendra Nagar in Gujarat.
All the product developments are done indigenously as the company doesn’t feel the need for a technology partnership. It is an ISO: TS 16949 -2009 certified company with clear emphasis on zero defect objective and system orientation.
Automobile and Textiles have been very important industry verticals for KCI. Textiles in particular assumes very special significance for the company with over 80 per cent of its supplies in the textile industry going to OEMs like LMW, Rieter, Zinser, Peass Oerlikon and others.
KCI has witnessed excellent growth in business from the textile industry in the last couple of years. This has encouraged it to expand its manufacturing capacity. KCI currently has capacity to manufacture 1.5 million bearings per annum for the textile industry, and this will be stepped up to 1.5 million units by 2013 end.
Currently KCI is not focusing on the export market as most of the capacities are used for the domestic market. With the expansion in capacity, it is planning to cater to overseas demand too. The very fact that KCI is supplying to companies like Rieter and Zinser confirms the product quality and performance. The company is very strong in bearings for ring spinning machines like the bottom roller bearings. KCI enjoys a 60 per cent marketshare for this product in India. The company has also developed special range of bearings for Schlafhorst Autoconer, Murata Autoconer and tangential contact assembly for Zinser, Marzoli and for other machines.
KCI has its special focus on OEM and aftermarket. It has established a pan-India network of distributors to cater to the aftermarket requirements of customers. All the products are available at affordable cost.
The proposed expansion of product range is only after the company gets a firm hold on global markets.