Estimated at ₹4,000 crore with 7-per cent growth, the market for power tools is projected to grow at a steady pace for the next 10 years. Backed by government initiatives to boost the manufacturing sector, India provides opportunity for growth, innovation and contribution, says Dattatraya Joshi, Executive Director and Secretary, Hitachi Koki India Pvt Ltd.

The company now rebranded as HiKOKI has announced its business plans for India and is aiming to scale up its dealer count from 600 to 1,000 by 2020. The company is also launching new technology multi-volt tools and is in plans to introduce affordable, user-friendly cordless and DIY tools in India.

“The growing demand for quality tools can enable India to compete globally,” he says in an interaction with B2B Purchase.

Why customers prefer your product? Comment on the equipment cost for customers?
Our products have high performance and durability as compared to the competitors. Certainly, these two are the edge over competitor’s product. Cost is comparable; we don’t say that we are less than our competitors, but the performance and durability is perfect.

How can you increase efficiency of your tools? How can customers get the maximum output from your tools?
Customers need to have regular preventive maintenance. That is one concept they have to adopt, follow and implement. Preventive maintenance means they have to change the oil or may be change some of the parts of those kind of things. Our service people go to the big customers and instruct them by a chart that these are all the things they have to follow. We give them service training and technical training. When it comes to product failure, it’s basically the parts that fail. That can be abusing of the machine, low maintenance of the machine or voltage fluctuation either of these three.

What kind of cutting-edge innovations are you bringing into the product ranges in India?
We have certain products like brushless motors, and there are no competitors for us in this type of cutting-edge technology.

What are the things to keep in mind while procuring?
Safety, performance and durability – these three are the major concerns from the customer’s point of view. Of course, we take care of these precautionary measures while designing a product.

The company plays a role in modernising construction sector in India. The company has products for all applications in the construction sector – drilling, demolition, all fine tooling products.
As far as automation sector is concerned, we are quite a matured market now. Even though the customer does not have a deep pocket, we are transferring ourselves. In the last 20 years, only entry- level cars are selling more but now, mid segment cars are being sold more. Even though luxury cars are less, now we have reached from entry-level cars to mid-segment cars.

What kind of challenges you see in construction sector to expand your market?
In construction sector, Chinese products are one of the major threat. They have almost about 50 per cent of market share in construction. That’s a big challenge because they have sold low-cost products. In order to face this challenge, we have decided to bring India-specific product. We have almost six products today focusing only on India and are low-cost products. In automobile sector, competition is from the organised sector. However, besides competition, we don’t see any other major concern.

With regard to the products being sold by players in the unorganised sector, safety is not a major concern and products are not durable. Also, there are fewer features in the products. As compared to these matters, branded products are recommended. India is known for ancient architecture but when you go for modern construction, ancient architectures are not at all relevant now. We’ll have to change ourselves to the current situation and modern technology is the need of the hour.

How far is the rupee-dollar relationship impacting your bottom line and relationship with customers?
The relationship with customers is not getting affected. Most of the players in the power tools business depend on the imported products. So, it is affecting the rupee-dollar exchange rate situation which is not just affecting the company but also our competitors. In this case, everyone has to increase their product prices and so are we. The price increase for us is almost 8 to 9 per cent of our cost. Still, we expect this market to grow about 7-10 per cent. Now, we are at 17 per cent of market share in the organised sector and aim in next two to three years to capture about 20 per cent.

Growing demand for quality tools can enable India to compete globally.
Dattatraya Joshi, Executive Director and Secretary, Hitachi Koki India Pvt Ltd.