With increased competition Tiger Metal Works have diversified and are planning to build one of the first container homes in Goa
Container homes are a big hit in the West but the idea is yetto catch up with Indians. The concept of a container home may soon become areality in Goa in a years’ time, thanks to fabrication man Jojo Joseph.
“Container homes can be moved from place to place. They areideal for those who have orchard lands and do not want to construct permanentstructures. Moreover they are cheap,” said Jojo Joseph, managing director ofTiger Sheet Metal Works (TSMW).
Container homes are made up of imported heat resistancesheets which are imported from Germany, he said.
“A normal container home with two rooms including a bathroomand a toilet costs around Rs 5 lakh,” Jojo said. Container homes can be used asshops, offices, cafes, restaurants, homes etc, he added.
TSMW was first started in Goa by Jojo’s parents K J Josephand Mary Joseph in 1977.
“In those days Goa did not have a vehicle fabrication market.We began by taking contracts for fabrication of ice boxes for Rahul Seafoods.Later we got orders to fabricate and insulate trucks that would carry seafoodacross various states,” said K J Joseph.
With the vehicle market booming in the ‘80s, the family movedinto fabricating of vehicles. Today TSMW has a market share of about 80 percent. The fabrication of delivery van market contributes about 60 per cent ofthe business and water tanks 10 per cent. Fabrication of refrigeration units,insulated vans etc makes up the remaining 10 per cent.
Presently Jojo manages the fabrication business along withhis younger brother George Joseph who looks after designing.
“With increasingcompetition, our market share has increased too. Earlier we used to do about 12to 13 vehicles a month which has grown to about 32 vehicles a month. We havediversified and offer new products, which keeps us ahead of our competitors,”said George Joseph.
Vijay Nair, who was trained at TSMW for ten years, now runshis own workshop in Marcel. “TSMW is a brand by itself. But TSMW works closelywith other smaller fabrication units, which helps us stay in business too,” hesaid.
He went on to disclose how TSMW was very particular aboutquality. “The final products are inspected thoroughly. If the work is not up tothe mark payments are not made,” Nair said.
“At TSMW we use the best. We are one of the few workshopsthat give one year warranty on the work we do. Goodwill is very important forus. We have customers who regularly keep coming back to us,” Jojo said.
TSMW is growing and are capturing markets in Karnataka andMaharashtra too. “Body building work in surrounding regions is not good. We seea huge potential in these areas and our long term plans to build workshopsacross Karnataka, Goa and Maharashtra,” Jojo said.
