Management Members of Atlas seated on the dais

Mr Girish Kapur(Joint President Atlas Cycles), during the Lamp lighting ceremony alongwith Mr Pankaj Agarwal of M/s Allahabad Cycle Supply Company, Allahabad.

20th February, 2010 was really a memorable day in the history of M/s Atlas Cycle (Haryana) Limited, Sahibabad, UP which should be recorded in golden colours. The Management of the Company called its Dealers get-together from the States of Uttar Pradesh and Uttaranchal to present Business Excellence Awards in recognition of the contributive achievements of their Dealers of these two States. The prime function was held in the evening at the Banquet Hall ‘Lemon Tree’.

Prima-facie, though the function was organized to present Business Excellence Awards to the target achievers, there was also an additional agenda to reinforce the business relation in a more transparent and understanding manner; so as to generate vigorous enthusiasm amongst the Dealers to make bicycle business a passion indeed.

The Dealers were invited in a group from their respective locations, who were then provided a five-star treatment in terms of their stay and entertainment. In the morning itself, most of them assembled in the factory premises at Sahibabad. After a customary and sincere welcome by the Management, they were taken around the factory to have a look at the facilities under which the branded items with ‘Atlas’ label are getting their shape, to suit the various needs of the society as far as pedaling two-wheelers is concerned.

From the busy schedule of the day, everybody got refreshed and relaxed by dusk; for the eagerly waited evening function. ‘Atlas’ portraits were adequately deployed in flourish ornamentation. Seats were pre-allocated for each and every Dealer with their names and the names of their firms printed in a decorative fashion. All Dealers were welcomed with the traditional ‘Patka’ and then ushered in to the hall by the top management, which created a feeling of camaraderie - much more than a merely handshake! By 8.00 PM, the banquet hall of ‘Lemon Tree’ was fully packed with more than 300 Dealers. The Management Staff of “Atlas” were also there on the stage alongwith Messrs. Jaidev Kapur, President; Gautam Kapur, Girish Kapur, (Jt. Presidents); I. D. Chugh (whole-time Director) Rahul Kapur, Rishav Kapur and Abhinav Kapur.

(From Right to Left): Mr Gautam Kapur(Joint President-Atlas Cycles) during the lamp lighting ceremony along with Mr Dinesh Agarwal , M/s Agarwal Cycle Store, Muzaffarnagar & Mr Vipin Kumar, M/s Ram Kumar Brij Kishore, Aligarh

The function started at with the traditional lighting of the lamp by Mr. Girish Kapur, Joint President of the company followed by the Hindu traditional Bhakti Sangeet – ‘Ganesh Vandanam’. After lighting the lamp in turn by all the management employees, Mr. Girish Kapur addressed and recognized and remembered the contribution of all concerned, irrespective of their inside/ outside support.

In his speech, Mr. Girish Kapur went ‘down memory lane’ and recollected the existence of ‘Atlas’ as a trusted name in the bicycle industry since 1951. Further, looking back over the last seven years, he proclaimed that there happened a restructuring of the flagship ‘Atlas’ in the year 2003; thereby creating Atlas Cycle, Sahibabad, an independent set up with a daily production capacity of 2,000 bicycles. Its current capacity is 6,000 bicycles per day which shows a manifold growth. He also mentioned that during the initial years, there was no export business, but now the per month quantum of export is 10,000 bicycles.

Mr. Girish Kapur made it known to the audience that their Milton Cycles, Sonepat factory is focusing more on fancy cycle frames, forks of different types, rim, pedal and chain. He regretted that the Dealer visit to this unit could not happen owing to time scarcity.

He specially remembered to appraise the gathering about the various phases of growth the company had achieved within a short span of seven years starting from the growth in production/ marketing. While in 2003, the monthly target was 35,000 bicycles, they had sold 80,000 bicycles in January 2010 as against 60,000 in the corresponding period of last year. Apart from growth in manufacturing/ sales, he also, proudly declared the opening of their 5th Painting Unit and envisaged the opening of one more Plant within the next three months. The primary attention is devoted to quality, finish, durability and dependability, so that all the dealers can rely upon the company, who in turn spread the message to the end user/customer of getting real value for the money they spend, said Mr. Girish Kapur. With such ethical practices of cent per cent guaranteed trustworthiness, year-after-year, he had no doubts, that the growth graph will reach new heights of success covering new milestones on the way forward, in the history of bicycle industry as a whole.

Inauguration of the Paint Plant at Atlas Cycles Factory at Sahibabad by Mr Jaidev Kapur (Centre) along with Mr Girish Kapur, Mr Gautam Kapur, Mr Rishav Kapur, Mr Abhinav Kapur

Mr. Kapur reaffirmed a good future for the Bicycle Industry based on the growing trend of using bicycle in several spheres of modern life. He expressed his heartfelt thanks to all those who had gathered there; and especially to those who are good pay masters; supporting the growth momentum. He emphatically urged all those whose payments were getting slightly delayed to improve their overall status, which they accepted in the spirit of ‘business for mutual benefit’.

While pinpointing all their endeavors for qualitative and quantitative improvement, it is also noteworthy to mention that Mr. Kapur proclaimed the result of their persistent endeavors of bringing ISI mark for their products. He was very happy to declare that on Feb 22nd, 2010, they are likely to get the ISI Certification, so that all further products coming out of their factory would have an ISI mark/label, which once again would reaffirm their commitment to high quality.

While congratulating their staff members of Purchase, Production, Finance, R&D, Quality Control, Stores, etc., there came a demand from the Sales Team to the Production Team to improve their skill to produce more numbers of cycles to cater for the overwhelming demands of their product in the market. One of the top Dealers with confidence assured a monthly offtake of one lakh cycles and, by and large, there was a stimulated response to achieve growth gradually. At this; on the request of Mr. Kapur, a star performer in the audience sang a parody of the famous Hindi patriotic song “Ham honge kamiyaab…. ham honge kamiyaab….ham honge kamiyaab aaj bhi.., man mein hai vishwas….poora hai vishwas….ham honge kamiyaab aaj bhi… and then repeated the same song by changing the word ‘kal bhi’ in place of ‘aaj bhi’ to assert their positive hope of growth..!

Mr Girish Kapur, Joint President Atlas Cycles, Addressing the dealers.

It is noteworthy to mention the recognition and respect expressed by Mr. Girish Kapur for their Director I. D. Chugh, who started his career 54 years back with Atlas and still actively continues to provide proper guidelines in Marketing Management. Mr. Girish Kapur remembered Mr. Chugh as a person who trained Mr. Kapur by accompanying him for almost one-and-a-half years in the various territories of UP, before which marketing was an unknown area for him. He said that Mr. I D Chugh’s name in the bicycle industry is well-known for more than five decades and he now known as the “Bhishma Pitamah” of Bicycle Industry, which in every sense suits his calibre.

The Dealers were assigned to achieve a target of minimum 40 cycles per month against which the company had been guaranteed one gram gold coin. Aggarwal Cycles, Agra broke the record for the same and attained the first position and achieved getting a sizeable packet of gold coins. Subsequently, all the business associates were presented gold coins proportionately to their target achievement and not a single person was left without carrying at least one gold coin to their credit.

To add flavour to the evenings gala show a professional “Thandav Dance Group” performed between every item of function with cinematic dances with best choreography, theatrical and scenarios representation.

Trophies and Certificate as Business Excellence Awards, were then distributed to everybody based on their achievements. The Kapurs specifically congratulated each and every Dealer and than had a photography session with each one.

It was a grand occasion for recognition, congratulations, stimulation, assurances, fun & enjoyment - in totality it was a big and successful bash indeed..!