PROMAN, one of the leading players in the crushing and screening segment,  is expanding its production capacities by building up a new factory near Bengaluru. The company is investing around ` 15 crores for this purpose.  In an interview with B2B Purchase, R.S. Raghavan talks about the company’s future plans.

How do you look at opportunities from projects like smart cities and other infrastructure projects?
Yes, highways and infrastructure projects are going to be the key for our company’s growth. We are also expecting the exports to the countries in the Middle East, Africa and America so that we will be able to grow much better.

Do you think the Indian government is taking enough efforts to encourage Indian manufacturers to set up a manufacturing unit or facilitate export outside India?
I don’t think the government is doing enough except for the initiative for ‘Make in India’. Even if this is done in a proper way by giving the right kind of support in terms of clearances, it will help us a lot. However, manufacturing in India has a long way to go and there is huge potential. We are waiting for GST to be in action also as we have learned that it is going to be implemented from the 1st April 2016.

How do you see the shift in technology in the past few years when there was a downturn in the industry?
In crushing and screening equipment a lot of people depend on solutions and they look for quality and reliable equipment. People have also realised that it is not necessary to import the equipment. The companies like ours focus on to get the best collaboration and technology and make the best equipment here in India. We even export products to other countries. Customers have built up trust and we have been able to deliver with their expectations with good quality and reliable products.

How did you perform in the overseas markets?
We worked with our partners like Ramco in the US. It has now become our distributor for our other products like jaw crushers and cone crushers. We worked in close cooperation and developed the product and based on that we launched it on a global platform in March 2014 at Las Vegas. We have been doing our exports in Middle East, Africa and America. About 25 per cent of our turnover is exports. We have opened up the product line like jaw crushers, cone crushers, screens and complete plant systems. These are the things which we have started exporting back to the US.

How many dealers and distributors you have?
Ramco has 18 dealers and it will be distributing through its dealers. It has done well for our products in North and South America. We have dealers in New Zealand, Middle East and also started selling in Africa. We would like to open some more markets this year. In the neighbouring countries like Sri Lanka we are working with some customers where things might happen.

As the market is yet to open up, what kind of strategies do you have to capture the market?
We are getting geared to manufacture equipment as per international standards. We are also putting in the systems in terms of complete plant like conveyors and hoppers and to do most of the work through our trusted and certified vendors along with in-house services depending upon the load.

We are expanding our production capacities by building up a new factory near Bengaluru which will be ready within a year. We have already started our fabrication unit which we had inaugurated recently. For our big equipment and heavy assembly there is a new factory coming up.

How much you are going to invest for the new facility?
We will be investing around ` 15 crores to build the required infrastructure. Having our own technology we will be able to make bigger machines at greater volumes. We are also looking for some tie-ups which we are working on. Complementing our existing range of crushing and screening to the infrastructure and mining industry, we would also be working on material handling and screening machines.