We are looking at giving customer a solution per tonne or per cubic metre of concrete. We have talked to some RMC majors about this business model, and this should become popular, says R Nandagopal, CEO, Construction Equipment Business Greaves Cotton. Excerpts from the interview.
What has Greaves` performance been like, in the concrete equipment segment?
We have strengthened our sales network and created a more focussed sales network where we have bifurcated our manpower product- wise. Our market share in transit mixers has moved up quite significantly but the volume of mixers has dropped so dramatically that even an increase in market share has not been able to make up the business losses. That is why overall, in spite of doing better on the market share, we are at slightly lower levels than last year. Q3 and Q4 may see post- monsoon activity picking up but economy- wise, nothing dramatically different is expected.
What is the potential from the export front?
Our product portfolio is a substantial one, and that has brought an increase in market play in the Indian market. We have also started to export batching plants and pumps. We have always sold transit mixers well in neighbouring markets. Now, we have started to look at more aggressively at East Africa, Kenya, and Tanzania, as also South-east Asia. We have sent out our first transit mixer to Thailand and we expect repeat orders from there.
Has the business potential for concrete equipment for RMC picked up?
The batching plant market has actually grown. RMC players have realised they need to get into Tier I and Tier 2 cities, and they have started focussing on those places. I know one of RMC major who has made investments in places like Coimbatore, Madurai, Cochin, and Mangalore. The market for concrete pumps has also grown. So, we feel that once our new product stabilises, then we will be able to push up our volumes in Q3 and Q4, in those markets. The market has already started to accept our new range of concrete products.
What are the latest products in your concrete product line?
We have launched a boom pump manufactured in India with technology collaboration from a Korean company. In terms of features, the first thing we have done is to place ourselves slightly differently. The industry spec is now 36m and we have a pump which is 37m; in terms of hydraulics, it is state- of-the- art; also for operational ease, we have a very convenient and handy operation which is based on a joystick operation mode. So we have moved up in the value chain and we look forward to this being the game- changer in the industry.
Have you invested big, especially in the production of the boom pump?
In capacity terms, we do not need to make major investments. Even for boom pump production, more than investing in capacity we have tried to optimise our existing capacity utilisation. We have done a lot of work in terms of streamlining the floor, manufacturing process bringing in better concepts in terms of manufacturing technology more precision, repeatability of quality, better processes and work methods. We have actually generated capacity from our existing plants even for putting this new line in place.