HK Vithlani, Regional Director – Middle East, Africa, Turkey & India, FUCHS
What are some of your recent products and solutions?
We believe that we have enhanced the performance of equipment in cement plants with our lubricants by giving them a longer life. We also have given a total package to the cement plants so that we can provide anything from start to finish. We have identified problems for customers in a very readable format so that they can take immediate action. Our products have been selling in India for years. We know the market, we know the customers and we have a very solid and professional team that we are proud of.
What about your relationship with your customers here?
Sometimes we call ourselves as problem solvers. Customers call us not to just get the products, they often discuss their problems with us. Often, we can offer a solution with our lubricants. And sometimes we also have to go behind the lubricant to see the equipment that’s being used. We are actually fairly active in problem solving. We always try to get very good application-based people for our specialist business and then we train them so that they are familiar with our products and the applications that they are servicing. We have a lot of our senior people visiting not only our plants but also customers. We do these regular inspections as that gives us an opportunity to keep on reviewing what our product is doing and what the state of equipment at plants is.
Since you have seen the industry evolve over the years, what do you see as transforming in the future?
I am hearing stories that there will be improvements in plant capacities. There are a lot of infrastructure projects that are about to start and then the cement industry will move with that.
What are the new products in the pipeline?
We have just introduced this GT 10 range, which is a high-viscosity adhesive lubricant. Now that is a very modern concept. And, I would like to feel that we are leaders in that field mainly because of the R&D that we have put into it. We have had successes all over the world and now we have brought the product to India. I hope that this will then get us on to the next stage. You have to bear in mind that a lot of plants are working with our products and they are absolutely happy. I wouldn’t say that in the cement industry as such we have got a huge problem where we are getting complaints from customers. When customers don’t complain you know that you are doing the job right.