”The government has to foster a climate of investment in the PPP or similar model and step up direct investment in core sectors for the projects to roll-in faster,” says Manoj Gupta, Head- Marketing Communication, Gates India Pvt. Ltd.

 Gates, the Indian subsidiary of Gates Corporation, USA, has established itself in the Indian hose and hose assemblies market. It has been emerged as one of the most preferred hose assemblies players within construction equipment OEMs. On the sidelines of ConMac 2015, Manoj Gupta speaks to B2B Purchase and highlights the business-related challenges and road ahead. 

Being an international company, is having an established presence in India going to be an advantage for Gates India?
Definitely! As a lot of product suppliers will come to India for better prospects and better product quality, we are raising the bar by creating quality products. Also customers’ demands are very volatile and expect quality products in a quick service time. After sales service and service point will be very important for us. We have around 120 distributors at strategic locations and will keep adding in future. Recently we started the concept of Gates Shoppe in India, a Shoppe dedicated exclusively to Gates products. This is aimed at providing solution as part of the Gates value chain. It will be providing solution to hydraulic and industrial activities.  

Many OEMs have feedback that there is a cash issue. Is it true?
Though a lot of projects have been announced, the crunch of funding still exists. Executions of projects have been started but the only issue is that there have been no or very minimal funds allotted. The government has to foster a climate of investment in the PPP or similar model and step up direct investment in core sectors for the projects to roll-in faster. 

Are there any issues you are facing like pending payments or credit?
No, as an organisation we are not facing any payments and credit issues except one or two accounts. However, we are impacted and influenced heavily by changes in prices of rubber or raw material. Being a flexible company with strong internal systems and process, we are trying to cope up with these challenges.  

Is there any new product range or offerings coming up?
We offer a wide range of hoses, couplings and assemblies covering various hydraulic applications and a range of industrial transfer hoses to convey a variety of media, concrete and chemicals. We have also commissioned a tube assembly facility last year to offer best in class tube assemblies to OEMs for fluid conveyance requirements. All the hose and tube assemblies supplied by us are custom made products for individual OEMs. To cater to the growth in this segment and ensure high service levels we have recently expanded and commissioned a new assembly facility at Pune, augmenting our existing capacity at Faridabad and Lalru near Chandigarh. All this is backed by our team of application and technical engineers who work closely with the customers to provide the most optimal solution for the installation.

Which sector do you have a strong foothold?
The construction equipment market is the largest segment for hoses and fittings and the domestic market is relatively small compared to Europe, China or US. However, all global major players are present in India leading to a very wide variety in standards and specifications and managing such a variety in smaller volumes has its own challenges. As the market grows we see export of equipment from India also growing and this along with growth in different end market segments like process industries will be important growth opportunities. 

What are your future plans?
Are there any new development from Gates India?We are going to launch 3-4 more products in the coming years. We have recently had a expansion of our the Pune assembly plant to cater to the increasing demand of customer in that region. Gates advantage has always been to work closer to our major customer to provide on JIT (Just In Time) concept to make our clients delighted with speed and quality of deliveries.  

Since the time Gates established its operations in India in the late nineties, there has been a rising expectation from the customer on safety, high performance and reliability. Gates has well met the customer requirements by continuous innovation and offering products and services through its national network resulting in the Industry leading position and is now well positioned for further strong growth as the country’s new growth era is unfolding.