VICOM - Part I

Have you been sending your car for inspection lately? If you have, you will probably have visited a facility run by the company that I am going to introduce shortly. Not only does the company provide good service for your car, it will perform a great service for your wallet too!

What is VICOM

VICOM Ltd was incorporated in 1981 and publicly listed on Singapore's stock exchange in 1995. The VICOM Group is a subsidiary of ComfortDelGro Corporation Limited.

Vicom owns 3 main business divisions:

VICOM and JIC vehicle inspection centres With over 300,000 vehicle checks conducted at our centres annually, and with car evaluations at 30,000 and counting, VICOM is the premier one-stop inspection service provider in Singapore. In 2009, it has 70% of the market share in Singapore.

VICOM Assessment Centre (VAC) provides a one-stop, post-accident service solution – towing services, car rentals, assistance in accident reporting, claims filing, repairs and safety checks through its three Independent Damage Assessment Centres (Idac), co-located within our VICOM inspection centres. VAC has also expanded its capabilities to include accident reconstruction using computer simulation and analysis, which assists in court litigation of disputed accident cases.

SETSCO forms VICOM’s non-vehicular inspection and testing arm. SETSCO provides testing, calibration, inspection, consultancy and training services to the

i) aerospace,
ii) marine and offshore,
iii) biotechnology,
iv) oil and petrochemical,
v) building construction and
vi) electronics manufacturing industries.

Its services include
i) quality assurance testing and evaluation of building materials,
ii) structural and chemical analysis,
iii) food and microbiological analysis,
iv) environmental monitoring, amongst others.

One of its recent developments is the setting up of SETSCO Aerospace Testing Centre (SATC) in November 2006. SATC provides a range of non-destructive testing of aircraft components. SETSCO’s advent into the aerospace industry has been duly validated, as demand has been strong with many top local and foreign companies utilising their services.

They also lease out parts of the buildings which they occupy and so rental income comprises a small part of their income (~5%). They also offer some miscellaneous services like consulting, motor insurance which form approximately 10% of 2009 income.