ABC INDIA LIMITED
ANNUAL REPORT 2002-2003
CHAIRMAN'S REPORT
Chairman's Communication:
1. We are working together for the past 40 years. Presently we see that the
road transport industry is passing through continued phase of recession. In
spite of which, eve continue to serve the industries, a difficult job made
possible by the continuous and untiring-efforts of our staff members and
the invaluable support and trust of our shareholders and our dear
customers.
2. The reasons for this state of recession are not far to seek, the
industrial growth is stagnant, share of industrial sector in GDP is still
not encouraging if compared with China having 49% and Thailand having 40%
of their respective GDP, by industrial sector.
3. It would be difficult for India to achieve even 7% growth only on the
uneven growth of services sector. If we have to attain 7% GDP growth over a
decade, manufacturing has to grow by at least 10-12% per year which is high
target. All these targets can be achieved only by availability and quality
of economic infrastructure of which transport infrastructure influences
economic productivity and social welfare by directly contributing to and by
enhancing amenities and influencing location decisions of private industry.
4. Increasing the emphasis on the transportation sector, particularly on
road transport, can provide a developing economy like India the necessary
infrastructure backbone for accelerated economic growth. A historical
overview of road development provides the right perspective for further
policy prescriptions and initiatives. With this in mind, a closer look at
the national highway system of India becomes significant due to the fact
that it carries 45 per cent of the traffic on just 1.4 per cent of the
total road surface. Road transport now forms the backbone of the economy as
it carries 87 per cent of the total passenger traffic and 65 per cent of
the freight traffic.
5. In the last 3-4 years the small transporters have found it very
difficult to remain in business and hence have begun to drop out of this
business. The economic slowdown has made it impossible for them to earn
economic returns from business. To remain in business, the large: transport
companies have been employing different strategies like outsourcing their
truck requirements rather than buying their own trucks. Through this they
can concentrate on increasing their market network, warehousing facilities
etc., and promote a decrease in average costs. The road transport business
is under constant scrutiny in order to control costs.
6. The Road Transportation has also come to occupy a major role in
logistics. The main reason behind this being that the road network is more
far reaching than the railway network. Moreover, improvement inroad
transport technologies has also resulted in reduction in costs per
kilometer, which, though, has been offset by the hike in diesel fuel
prices.
7. We hope that the road transport sector, which has an approximate growth
rate of 5-6 percent per year, will grow at a greater pace. This can be
effected by providing more and more value added services like backhaul
services, tracking, single point accountability, alternative standby
arrangements etc. for which we wilt have to work harder with a greater
degree of commitment and a sense of fair competition. We are sure that all
the members of the road transport sector, across the country, will endeavor
to make our business a success.
8. Performance:
Several external constraints and impediments continued to adversely affect
the performance of your Company during the year under review. The
unprecedented recession has not spared any segment of transport sector. In
addition, problems of unremunerative rates, cash crunch and unethical
competition coupled with high interest rates continued to depress our
margins and consequently the profitability. We hope, we will come out of
this recession also successfully.
9. Project Division:
The Project Division has been functioning smoothly though the growth
figures are not very satisfactory. Performance of Nissin ABC Logistics
Private Limited, the joint venture Company floated by our Company in
collaboration with Nissin Corporation of Japan has been encouraging.
However, the 2003-2004 started with prospect of increased volume of project
business for implementing project's in certain Oil sector PSU.
10. Organizational transformation:
Your Company is aware of the fact that its employees are its key resources
and to keep the work force highly motivated, we continued to emphasise on
building up strategic strength by practicing organizational transformation
and restructuring. Initiatives were taken for increased profitability and
savings in overhead costs. To keep our dedicated workforce more objective
oriented, we have placed core emphasis on teamwork and development of human
resources. For the purpose of growth and orientation towards more market
demand and customer satisfaction, we have divided our entire team to work
dedicatedly for bulk and small segments.
11. Total quality management, kaizen and staff education - Our efforts to
create human assets:
We wish to reiterate that Customer focus oriented with total quality
management is the key factors that integrate the human resources practices
of your Company. Participative planning and strategy formulation process
has helped us to improve involvement and alignments amongst the employees.
Continuous in house training and development programmes and continuous
learning process is absolutely necessary for ensuring retention of the best
talent besides providing us with a sustainable platform for overall growth
in the business environment.
Our training programs have been formulated to develop cross-functional
skills amongst the workforce. The objective to provide our workforce with
an opportunity to accuaint with the areas, not immediately relevant to
their job profile which is important from the perspective of all round
development. Such training program were held at cyber cafes to make our
employees familier with the operation and functioning of the world of
internet.
The Company continued to organize in-house training programs regularity for
motivation, team building, quality consciousness and overall personality
development. Through these training programs, specific case studies are
made relating to our Company and its various projects.
In order to develop our Company into a learning organization side our
business activities, our entire team with internal initiative,
determination and oneness of purpose continues to redefine the manner in
which our Company conducts its business albeit maintaining its values and
traditions.
We have immensely. benefited by the expert guidance of external faculty
invited to our training programs and meetings from time to time and our
efforts in this direction shall continue.
12. I appreciate the services of all our staff members, at all levels,
under stress and strain. I extend my thanks to all our customers, who
reposed high confidence in us.
I deeply thank our Shareholders, who will be our inspiring spirit in the
future to come. I also thank the members of the Board, who have guided me
at all times.
With my best and warmest wishes to each to you.
Kolkata, A.K. Agarwal
The 29th July, 2003 Chairman