Avinash Gandhi
Dear stakeholders,
The year tested us in ways that justified the reasons for the merger in the first place. Consumer sentiment continued to spiral, weighing down growth across the economy. Demand slackened in global markets. Other events such as liquidity crunch and policy uncertainties contributed to volatility in the Indian economy. Most of the macro indicators such as GDP growth, Index of Industrial Production (IIP) growth, consumer price index and automobile sales turned unfavourable during the year.
The impact on the automotive segment has been significant, with a minor uptick witnessed in the last quarter. However, newer players in the automobile sector with focus on compact Special Utility Vehicles (SUVs) did reasonably better.
At Schaeffler India, we responded to these headwinds by being wellprepared and cautious through our research, improving our core value proposition for customers. We relied on the inherent strength and de-risked nature of our business model. We took various steps to fortify the identity of the ‘Schaeffler’ brand in India.
2019 marked our first full year of operations since the merger as Schaeffler India, and it was a challenging, yet eventful one. We embarked on a new journey of redefining our strategies, rebuilding our synergies and reorganising ourselves as One Schaeffler.
While our revenues and profits registered degrowth compared to the year before, the last quarter allowed us to end the year on a high note.
We, the Board of Directors of Schaeffler India, remain committed to creating value for all of you and taking your Company to greater heights through our efficient process planning and strategy implementation.
During the year, we took significant steps to empower the communities that we operate in and played a proactive role in driving sustainability across our operations. Our initiatives such as Nitara, access to healthcare and hygiene, and the STEP programme were a great success.
We are also integrating with the Group’s Asia Pacific region, highlighting our increasing role in generating growth. With this in mind, we are continuing with our investments in India, especially by expanding our R&D capabilities.
Your Company is well-governed by a Board that has the right balance of independent and non-independent directors.
Going forward, we will continue to persevere and excel through decisionmaking that delivers on long-term value creation. Robust governance practices are key levers to our efforts to drive customer-centricity, and are a reflection of our affinity to the Group’s ethos.
With an aim to provide shareholders a deep-dive into our business, production processes, R&D capabilities and ESG (Environment, Social and Governance) initiatives, we organised a maiden visit for them to our plant in Talegaon, Pune. I, along with the members of the India executive leadership team, played hosts to over 150 shareholders. It was heartening to receive positive response and appreciation from all of them post the visit. We are truly overwhelmed by the enthusiasm, intrigue and warmth of our dear shareholders.
Together with our partners across the value chain, we are creating a strong ecosystem to realise our plans over the coming years. I would thus like to extend my heartfelt gratitude to investors and our parent company for their continued support and steady commitment.
Sincerely,
Avinash Gandhi
