Ajax Fiori (India) Pvt Ltd is one of India’s leading concreting machinery manufacturers. Here’s the excerpt from a Q&A with the company’s Head – Sales, Marketing & Product Support, Debasis Bhattacharya:

From a single product manufacturing company with self-loading mixers to a promising complete concreting solutions provider – how do you look back at this journey?
Incorporated as a collaborative venture between Ajax Engineering India and Fiori S.p.A Italy in 1992, Ajax Fiori Engineering (I) Pvt Ltd has come a long way in the last 25 years of its successful journey. We were the pioneers in bring the technology of Self Loading Concrete Mixer (SLCM) in India which revolutionised the way of concreting for small and medium requirement of concrete for all types of infrastructure projects in its early days.

Initially there were doubts in the minds of the customer regarding the technology, however the product proved its reliability and efficiency and today Ajax Fiori’s Argo Self-Loading Concrete Mixer finds its place in most of the construction sites in India.

After the success of SLCM, Ajax Fiori joined hands with ORU, S.p.A Italy for manufacturing Batching Plants in 1998. Later had a technical collaboration with Euro Star, Italy for manufacturing Planetary Mixers in India. In 2013, we entered into concrete pump arena with a technical tie up with Junjin Heavy Industry Co. Ltd, South Korea.

Today we are a complete concrete solution provider and thanks to our esteemed customers who had pushed us all these years to bring innovative and sustainable products.

The journey is so far gratifying and we are confident to bring new technologies and solutions as per our customers’ needs.

FHave you been able to penetrate the Indian market as desired?
Contractors in India always welcome new technology innovations and are willing to try those machines which suit their project requirement. Initially these machines were used predominantly in irrigation projects but after the acceptance of the technology, these machines found its application in various segments such as roads and bridges, railways, transmission lines, power projects, industrial foundations, solar farms and wind mill foundation to name a few.

Today around 5 per cent of the total cement consumption in India is by our SLCM and still there is a possibility to explore niche market for our products.

Ajax Fiori concreting machines are extensively used across construction projects. What is your outlook on the demand pattern in India?
Due to the versatility of these machines, Ajax Fiori products find its usage extensively in most of the construction and infrastructure projects. The infrastructure growth clubbed with strict deadline for these projects increases the demand of these machines.
We had witnessed a steady growth since early 2016 and considering the off take of projects announced by central and state governments, our estimate is that the demand will sustain for another 2-3 years.

FAre you working on any new product development keeping pace with the changing trend?
Ajax Fiori is focused on R&D and technological innovations in all our solutions. New products are always based on changing customer needs and their regular feedback. Our R&D continuously brings new products into the market as required by concreting needs of construction industry. Our strategy is to provide products which make economic sense, investment sense, and productivity sense, to our customers.

Customers can witness our new product range of concreting equipment in the upcoming EXCON 2017 scheduled to be held in Bengaluru.

FYou launched JSP 50 Concrete Pump at bC India 2016. How is the acceptance? How many units you have sold so far?
JSP 50 with an output of 50 cubic metre per hour is an ideal size pump to meet the fairly large volume of concrete in a stock-stop basis. This concrete pump will bridge the gaps between our existing product ranges of JSP 40 and JSP 70 with an output of 40 cubic metre per hour and 70 cubic metre per hour respectively. The JSP 50 is well accepted by our customers and is performing to the utmost satisfaction to the site requirement. Today around 25 pumps are working in the field for various application sector.

FTell us about your customer support and maintenance services.
Ajax Fiori believes in ‘total customer satisfaction’ and all our strategies are prioritised keeping customers in mind. After-sales support is a major differentiator in this business and no one understands better than Ajax Fiori.

Our sales, parts and service network is spread across the country with over 25 dealers and 60 touch points for the customers and backed with 2 service centres currently in Bengaluru and Hyderabad.

We provide annual maintenance contract for our products and also take care of operation and maintenance contract of machine to our customers.