Strategic market planning for hollow insulator division

Abstract

BACKGROUND:W.S. Industries(India) Limited is involved in the manufacture of Power transmission and distribution equipments. The company is the largest manufacture I. of Hollow Insulator in the domestic market. The Hollow Insulator market has shown a great deal of growth in the last 5 years. It is expected that this market is going to grow phenomenally in the next 5 years. Hence all the manufacturers are going for expansion to capture the market. This project attempts to frame the strategy to be adopted by the company to increase the overall market share. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY: The main objective of this project are:1. To establish market opportunities for the following types of Hollow Insulator a. Condenser Bushings (CB) b. Lightning Arresters (LA) c. Current Transformers (CT) d. Capacitor Voltage Transformers (CVT)e. Medium Voltage Breaker (MV)f. Extra High Voltage Breaker (EHV)g. Power Transformer (PT)2. To recommend a suitable product mix for the Hollow Insulator so that the company has reasonable market share in the above types. METHODOLOGY: The strategy has been framed after the following analysis:1. Market analysis.2. Customer analysis.3. Competitor analysis.4. Company analysis. OBSERVATION AND FINDINGS: The analysis has highlighted the following issues: Out of 7 segments in the total Hollow Insulator market it is seen that the EHV and PT segments are the major segments which contributes about 54% of the total market requirement. The future of Hollow Insulator market looks very bright in the next 5 years with an estimated growth rate of 14% per annum. ABB,CGL,BHEL AND MISC. are the major customers in the total Insulator market. The A class customers alone contribute to about 63% of the total Insulator buying. There are totally 6 major manufacturers of Hollow porcelain in India. In terms of sales volume , WS is the market leader occupying 28% of the total market supplies. WS is concentrating more on the CT,LA,CVT segments which are B class segments. DEC is concentrating more on PT which is a A class segment and LA which is a B class segment. JSI is concentrating more on EHV and PT which are both A class segments MIL is concentrating more on EHV which is A class segment. BHEL is concentrating more on PT which is an A class segment. MISCELLANEOUS MANUFACTURERS are concentrating more on PT which is anA class segment. RECOMMENDATIONS: WS has to change its product mix. It has to concentrate more on the EHV and PT market segments, which are the major segments . The extra capacity which is to be added has to incorporate machines which can manufacture EHV and PT Insulators. WS has to concentrate on the A class customers in this segment. These customers are already buying Insulator from us and they have expressed their willingness to procure more from us. Hence it is very easy for us to satisfy these customers by performance. WS can concentrate on EHV and PT segments even if it is going to eat into its CT,CVT,LA segments. WS can concentrate on EHV and PT segments and stop producing MV Breaker and CB and still increase its sales volume and overall market share.