Shrikaant Sawaiikar is not kidding when he says that virtually all the big names in the automobile industry are his potential clients in the near future.

The Chairman and Managing Director of the Varron Group, which specialises in manufacture of aluminium ingots, is now preparing an aggressive roadmap with the commissioning of a Rs 700 crore facility in Nagpur towards the end of this year.

“Chennai is the Detroit of the south and there is no reason why we cannot meet the aluminium needs of all carmakers located in the region,” Sawaiikar toldBusiness Line.

Varron already has two plants in Ratnagiri near Maharashtra with a combined capacity of over 2,000 tonnes each month. The ingots produced here are supplied to Tier 1 component makers like Endurance, Minda Industries and Jay Hind Industries which, in turn, ready the final product for vehicle manufacturers.

The new integrated plant in Nagpur will have a capacity to produce 30,000 tonnes of ingots each month which will give Varron an opportunity to supply directly to OEMs. The first phase will begin in October with a monthly capacity of 9,000 tonnes. This will be up to nearly 18,000 tonnes in the second phase scheduled to kick off in April 2015 before it is fully operational at 30,000 tonnes per month in October.

Sawaiikar believes turnover of the group will have also doubled to over Rs 2,000 crore by 2016. “The sky will be the limit for Varron with potentially big names like Maruti, Ford, Hyundai, BMW and Nissan as well as BHEL and the Railways,” he says. This, he adds, is only logical since aluminium will be used extensively by the auto industry. Eventually, the auto business will take up 60 per cent of Varron’s sales with power and electricals accounting for the balance.

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