Management spoke about opportunity and their approach of doing PPF business in India during Q2 concal:
I did scuttlebutt to understand more about domestic opportunity for Garware. Below is notes from same based on interaction with 4 tinters/owners doing PPF business and Xpel distributor.( Thanks @aga.ayush11 for helping with insightful questions)
Cost of PPF per car varies from 1.5 to 3 Lacs including installation charges. Spending such an amount for a high end car is worth considering the resale value for a well maintained car.
Cost of PPF per sq feet is Rs.650 to 900. (3M seems the costliest). An average material required is 220 to 250 sq feet. Cost varies depending on car model, design, size…etc.
PPF available as two materials TPU and TPH. TPU is of high quality with a warranty of 10 years. TPH quality is low compared to TPU and warranty period is for 5 years.
Overall market has transitioned from using wax (which gives glassy appearance) to ceramic coating and to PPF. Few years back the tinter who was doing 25 cars ceramic coating and 5 cars PPF is doing the reverse now. ceramic coating offers resistance but does not have self healing property and does not offer protection against stone chips which is a common problem on highways. If significant scratches happen on PPF without damaging the underlying paint we can replace the PPF and still give the new look to the car.(narrated a story about such an incident with a car owner who got impressed and get PPF done for his other cars also.)
PPF business is increasing with an increase in the number of high end cars. Out of 10 high end cars at least 6-7 ‘will get PPF done.
Xpel, ceramic pro( kavac),stec,3M are preferred brands. There are other players like Llumar, saint gobain, Lg cool pro, hexis and few more Chinese brands. Xpel and Ceramic pro(kavac) seem to be leaders are preferred by tinters. 70% of customers do not ask for any particular brand and most of the time they will go by tinter advice. Few cars get PPF done at the showroom itself while purchasing. Each vehicle needs 3-4 days of time for PPF and generally 3-4 technicians work on it.
All are aware about Garware’s global brand and they have been approached by the garware team to buy PPF. Feedback I could get is, global brand is not preferred and concerns about overall quality, peeling of film at the edges and wrinkling are common compared to other top brands. Slight Yellow tinge which appears after applying seems to happen early( three months) with global brand.(same is one year for Kavac and 6 months for 3M).
XPEL has its own software and even ceramic pro(kavac). If we enter the car model and detail, it gives pre defined cuts for that particular model from PPF roll which exactly fits the edges and angles of the particular car. Using software wastage of roller is more and installation charges also high. Manually we can do the same job without wasting film roll. Software has a role in exotic cars like Lamborghani due to more angles.
Xpel distributor has 4 authorized dealers. These dealers have their own tinkering business and sell to others also. Xpel provides training to authorized dealers/installers. Xpel gets paid for using their software by dealers.
Material is imported from the USA and distributed here.
Overall xpel is growing at 10-15% per year. retail price is 650-750 per sq feet but can’t share the details about margins.
Xpel has a 10 year warranty and carries a unique id linked to the vehicle identification number. Using xpel software we can go back and check details of installation, thickness of material…etc which customers are interested in while reselling the vehicle.
Xpel film material, thickness and adhesive used is of top quality. Other companies’ material will develop a slight yellow tinge over the period(feedback from others is also the same). This is one of the reasons for why xpel is preferred by customers/installers particularly on white colored cars.
Discl: invested