CHASING MANUFACTURING EXCELLENCE

VIKAS GUPTA, MANAGING DIRECTOR (OPERATIONS), PG ELECTROPLAST LTD SHARES HOW HIS COMPANY IS PLAYING A PART IN BUILDING A GLOBALLY COMPETITIVE COMPONENTS ECOSYSTEM IN INDIA

- SYED AMEEN KADER

Late Pramod Gupta’s entrepreneurial journey was bumpy but highly inspirational as it tells how an engineer with a passion for making big chose to quit his government job with the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) to start his own TV components manufacturing company at a time when India was heavily reliant on imports for such electronic parts.

Building on the legacy of its founder Late Promod Gupta, who set up the PG Group in 1977, the family-run business is achieving new heights under the leadership of Vikas Gupta and his brothers. Today, its flagship company PG Electroplast Limited (PGEL), which was set up in 2003, has gained a leadership position in Original Design Manufacturing (ODM), Original Equipment Manufacturing (OEM) and Plastic Injection Moulding, providing One-Stop Solutions to over 30 leading Indian and global brands. It is driving India’s manufacturing growth story by making the country self-reliant on electronic components of white goods.

“In 2003, we started manufacturing plastic moulding components to improve backwards integration, and within a few years, we became the largest manufacturer of TVs in India,” tells Gupta. But, PGEL suffered a huge blow in the year of 2011 as the industry overnight pivoted to flatscreen TVs, the manufacturing for which shifted out of the country to China, he recalls.

“We then focussed on plastic moulding and built our capabilities and capacities for the same. We started diversifying our portfolio of clients across different industries.” In 2016, the company decided to shift its business model towards delivering finished products for clients, and so it started focussing on expanding its manufacturing capabilities, adding at least one major capability every year.