We have done a lot of indigenisation

Ingersoll-Rand plc is a global diversified industrial company formed in 1905 by the merger of Ingersoll-Sergeant Drill Company and Rand Drill Company, rival companies that had each been founded in 1871. Ingersoll Rand’s innovative products range from complete air compressor systems, tools, ARO pumps, material handling systems and more. Ingersoll-Rand (India) Ltd established its first manufacturing plant in Naroda, Ahmedabad in 1965 and in 1977 became a public limited company.

ITJ Editor, Samuel Joseph met Jatinder Kaul, Director – Sales, Ingersoll-Rand (India) Ltd during India-ITME, which was held in Mumbai recently. He speaks on the products for the textile industry and their participation in ITME exhibition.

Ingersoll Rand needs no introduction. The company already has a very good air compressor market in India as well as overseas. Which are the other market segments of the company for the textile industry?

If you see, Ingersoll Rand India is one of the oldest US ventures into India. We started our Indian operation way back in 1965. Compressors are the heart of any plant or any new ventures. We serve customers across all verticals – be it steel, oil & gas, textile, automobile, pharmaceutical, etc. Since the last few years, textiles has been the high-growth segment for us. We, as a organisation, are one of the pioneers in this sector.

We offer various types of centrifugal technology, oil-free technology or rotary technology. We are one of the manufacturers providing end-to-end solutions to various types of textile plant that are coming up in India.

Apart from compressors, what are the other products for textile industry?

Efficiency of a compressor plays a very important role towards the success of the textile industry. Compressors normally consume about 20-50 per cent of the electrical load. In addition to compressors, we also have air dryers, which provides air treatment, i.e., removing moisture so that there cannot be any unnecessary wastage in the plant. For a long time, we have been working on one more solution. We witnessed that during the distribution network there is a lot of loss, so we have a special solution pipe wherein the pressure drops are very low than the pipes that are normally used. We have an end-to-end solution from compressors to pipings to air dryers to receivers. We offer complete solution to the textile plants.

Can you tell us something about the setup here in India?

Our plant is located in Ahmedabad (Gujarat) wherein we manufacture all types of compressors in our unique plants of Ingersoll Rand. We have branches in all the important metro cities. We are also planning to expand in tier 2 and 3 cities so that we can be closer to our customers. And when I say branches, I mean the front desk and the sales people we have across all major locations.

What is the USP of products offered by Ingersoll Rand?

We do not work on one time sale. We always partner with our textile customers and ensure that we offer them the right solution. Eg: one of the cases where the textile plant uses a boiler, we gave them a heat recovery system along with the compressor so that their return on investment is much faster and their cost of production goes down. We also provide various types of air dryers, refrigerated ones, which heat up compression time. Whatever is the process, we make sure that we give suitable compressor and dryer to the requested customers.

Which are your major export markets?

We are exporting to countries like Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal. These countries are looked after Ingersoll Rand India only. Then there is a separate vertical in Ingersoll Rand, wherein we export a lot of compressors to our various plants worldwide. For eg: High-pressure compressors are made only in a facility in Naroda (Ahmedabad) and from there we export it to our worldwide customers.

Our Prime Minister’s ‘Make in India’ initiative is the talk of the town. What are the efforts being done for indigenisation?

We started our operations way back in 1965. We have done a lot of indigenisation already. I am proud of the initiative taken by the Government of India and would like to say that we are ahead of them in terms of implementation. We are working on the same direction of the vision of the present Government.

How was the response to the India ITME exhibition? How was the experience? How do you do the marketing?

The India ITME exhibition is very good. In my personal experience, I have not seen such a big crowd and that too relevant ones. The customers were not only from India, in fact there were people visiting from Bangladesh, and also from other emerging economies like Africa, Sri Lanka, etc. I met a few of the customers from Asia-Pacific region too, which is really awesome.

Speaking about our marketing strategy, Ingersoll Rand is quite well-known in textiles. We have been working with all the major textile groups across India.

As I said before, we partner with them instead of just selling it. We adopt a more customer-centric approach. We understand their problems, work with them and provide solutions.