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Mr Vipin Sondhi

Our Bureau

New Delhi, Aug. 17 Undeterred by the present slowdown in the construction equipment market, JCB India expects a very strong push in demand in the next three to five years. In order to gear up for the situation, the company is focussing on training operators to man its machines.

“Last year we have trained 3,000 persons and this year we have increased the number of (training) centres to six and would be training 6,000 persons,” the Managing Director of the company, Mr Vipin Sondhi, said.

This despite the present slowdown in production. Earlier, on an average, the company was producing 66 machines daily, which currently stands at 50, a drop of close to 25 per cent.

According to Mr Sondhi, despite the present slowdown, the company’s ongoing expansion plans are on schedule and hopefully by the year end, daily production will exceed earlier levels, particularly through export demand.

“Every JCB machine gives employment to at least two operators. The JCB certification enables these trained personnel to finds jobs in West Asia also quite easily. The one-month training costs Rs 7,000 for a candidate and after completion it takes one to two month for them to recover that amount,” he said.

Majority of the buyers of JCB machines are small and medium businessmen who buy these machines through financing and lease them out to big contractors.

“Around 25 per cent of our clients are first-time buyers while 50 per cent own anywhere between one and four machines,” Mr Sondhi said.

Informed sources said under the present market conditions, where most big construction projects including those in the public sector are getting delayed due to rising input costs, particularly that of steel and cement, these smaller buyers are facing problems in getting loans as financers are choosing to remain non-committal. “This is a period of adjustments. But still we are better placed compared to other players — an advantage of having the biggest market share,” he said.

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