Vipin V. Nair Having quelled a Chinese challenge, Godrej is looking to upgrade customers to technically superior locks. LEGENDARY thieves, hardcore criminals and heroes in prison are all endowed with an uncanny skill: opening locks with a twisted safety pin. Well, that's what we have seen in innumerable movies so far. Real-life thieves use more sophisticated tools to break open houses, banks and safes. As their mastery reaches new levels, the need for enhanced security too rises, and the market of locks and related accessories gain. That brings smiles to the face of B. K. Rajkumar, Vice-President & Business Head of Godrej & Boyce Mfg. Co. Ltd, a leading manufacturer of locks in India. Rajkumar and his team were recently in Kochi, celebrating the division's achieving a turnover of Rs 100 crore. "We now hope to double our turnover over the next 2-3 years," he says. At present, the Rs 1,800-crore Godrej & Boyce, whose products range from home appliances to furniture to storage solutions to machine tools, claims to be the leading locksmith in the country, with its Rs 100-crore locks division accounting for a 30 per cent share of the organised locks market. Lock manufacturing falls under the small-scale industries (SSI) sector in India and is dominated by the unorganised sector, which accounts for two-third of its annual turnover of Rs 1,200-1,300 crore. The Rs 400-crore organised sector boasts of brands such as Link, Harrison and Europa, apart from Godrej. The boom in the housing sector and increasing awareness about security systems in the country have kindled the interest of multinationals too. Companies such as Ingersoll Rand, Kaba, Sargent and Greenleaf (S&G) and the world's leading lock manufacturer, Assa Abloy, are all keenly eyeing India and apparently, some of them have started trading their wares. In the recent years, Godrej introduced a wide variety of locks offering various levels of security to various kinds of customers. The current portfolio has two categories: off-the-shelf products such as padlocks, door locks, furniture locks and handle sets, and customised products and security solutions. The first set of products is usually sold through the retail network and accounts for the lion's share of about 85 per cent of the company's revenues. The second line is mainly targeted at institutions. "Customers are very demanding these days. They are asking for variety. To cater to them, we are now planning to increase our capacity and go in for technical upgrade," says Rajkumar. Currently, Godrej makes about 20,000-25,000 lever locks and some 1,000 Ultra locks a day. More action is happening in the `Ultra' locks segment (locks with computer-designed dimpled keys that cannot be duplicated). The new range of Ultra locks come with keys that have dimples in 100 million combinations. This means that the chance of a key getting duplicated comes after 100 million keys! Compared to this, a normal lever lock key has only 20-30 combinations. "Now we are working on Ultra locks that will have a combination of 30 billion," he says. In order to further enhance quality, the company is in talks with some global majors to source technology. But introducing the latest technologies does not ensure instant demand in the market. For locks are articles that come last in priority at the time of constructing a building. Also, carpenters, who may not be brand-conscious at all, often heavily influence purchase decisions. In order to tide over this issue, Godrej is now talking directly to carpenters and showing them a film that explains how to fit the sophisticated locks in doors and furniture. "We have found that problems arise in the case of sophisticated locks because they are not installed properly. So now we are educating carpenters," Rajkumar points out. A problem with regard to the Ultra locks has been that if a customer needed a duplicate, the dimpled key had to be sent to Mumbai. Now Godrej is setting up key duplication centres in more cities. Another innovating thing the company is trying out is `Locktionery,' a compact disc that contains all specifications and applications of various locks. The purpose of bringing out Locktionery is to educate end customers all about locks, so that they choose the right stuff. Rajkumar says Godrej usually eschews mass advertising and prefers this type of campaigning. "We participate in exhibitions and conduct roadshows and insta booths," he says. Nevertheless, Godrej is increasing direct interaction with customers through these efforts. "We talk to our customers and suggest the kind of security they should go in for. " This direct interaction is the strategy Godrej has adopted when it comes to selling its customised security solutions too. For instance, if a customer needs a common key for all the doors in the house rather than many different ones, Godrej will provide such a product. The company will also provide a totally new lock, latch or component to customers, and these products can come with the customer's brand name as well. A number of large firms such as Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd, Indian Oil Corporation, Nestle India and Jet Airways are Godrej's clients for its customised solutions. Rajkumar pooh-poohs suggestions that cheaper Chinese locks could overrun the Indian locks industry. He admits that it did look like a big threat when they landed in India. But now the company is of the view that they are not a big problem as customers realise that the Chinese locks are not as good as they were perceived to be. "People are now willing to pay a higher price for our locks since they want a better quality. We don't see Chinese locks as a threat anymore."