We introduced the concept of Clean India: Director, Roots

Roots Multiclean, India’s first mechanised cleaning equipment manufacturer, was launched with a vision of a cleaner nation. Soon, the company, a part of Roots Group of Companies, became the largest company in India for its mechanised cleaning equipment. Dr S Chandrasekar, Director – Strategic Sourcing, Plant Engineering & Corporate Planning, Roots Group of Companies, says proudly “We introduced the concept of “Clean India” even before it was announced by our Prime Minister.”

Roots Group has nine companies under the umbrella. “Out of the nine companies, two companies are top five in the world. Roots Industries is an automotive company, and we are India’s largest and the fifth largest in the world,” says Dr S Chandrasekar.

“Our journey started with a simple push sweeper, flipper and today our highly sophisticated manufacturing facility produces a range of machines Including scrubbers, high-pressure washers, industrial vacuum cleaners, carpet cleaner machines, steam cleaners, city sweepers and runway sweepers. One of the biggest strength of Roots Multiclean is the team, our All India network of 70 Business Development Executives, over 170 Service Engineers cover 29 states of India and continuously strive to exceed customer expectations in ensuring excellent sales and service support. Our Service team is trained for “Fix it Fine – The First Time” and ensuring maintenance costs at the lowest,” he added.

On the USP of the product for the textile industry, Dr S Chandrasekar had this to say: “We are not a part of the textile industry directly. We spin our own yarn, and we make our own fabric and stitch it, which ultimately becomes a part of the cleaning equipment. Easy clean mop is our main product. It has a unique fibre, which is a mix of acrylic. We do our own blow room process too. The main USP of this product is that when we sweep the dust does not fly; the mop catches the dust firmly and one can dump easily at any place. With broom, the dust flies.” He adds, “We have some companies that produce parts for the textile industry. In fact, we supply aluminium die casting parts to Lakshmi Machine Works (LMW), and other leading companies like Itema, Savio, to name a few.”

Added Dr S Chandrasekar, “The fibre, which are used in mops, is manufactured in-house by our own technology. We have a small facility which has blowroom, carding and even spinning unit, including weaving, knitting and stitching. Our product is completely made in India. We think that the Make in India initiative is a very good concept introduced by our Prime Minister, and we support them strongly. In fact, our Chairman was very much part of the seminar in Frankfurt, Germany, in which the Make in India concept was introduced.

On capacity of this unit, he said, “The facility is just a part of the entire business unit of Roots Multiclean. It could be around Rs 3 to 4 crore. Roots Multiclean is about Rs 350 crore, and Roots is a Rs 1,000-crore company. We export to about 45 countries. In India, we are strong in almost all the centres. We have branches in 14 locations in India from where we service our products. Apart from this, we have a cleaning facility in the United States too. We have acquired that company.”

Speaking on the capacity expansion, he said, “Soon we will be planning to go for our second unit for which we have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Government of Tamil Nadu during the Global Investors Meet, held on January 19 in Chennai. The MoU is for a greenfield project, and will employ around 250 people.”

“Our product is a little expensive compared to other products available in the market,” he thinks. He adds, “However, the USP is the cloth. You get cheap competition from China, which is also one of our biggest challenges. We tackle them by keeping very low margins.”

On the general trend of the industry, he says “The industry has slowed down, and it will stay like this for the next 3-4 months at least. We expect something dramatic to happen. Coimbatore used to be the hub of textile, but it is slowly losing its sheen to Ahmedabad and Surat.”