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For Danish pump manufacturer Grundfos, India is a huge market — one that it has acknowledged as its “second home market”.
It has been here since the late 1990s and has a nearly 5 per cent share of the Rs 6,600-crore pump market in the country.
The company would like to see this market grow, but definitely not at the cost of the quality, efficiency and reliability that Grundfos stands for.
“Our ambition in India, which is our second home market, is to be as dominant a player as we are in Denmark,” Carlo Prola, Group Senior Vice-President, Grundfos Management, told a team of Indian journalists at one of the company’s facilities in the small town of Bjerringbro, in Denmark, last week.
Bells and whistles
That explains why Grundfos is focussing on R&D in India, so that it can develop pumps and applications for the domestic market.
As N.K. Ranganath, MD, Grundfos Pumps India Pvt Ltd, told the journalists at the company’s premises on Chennai’s Old Mahabalipuram Road, Grundfos is looking to see if it is possible to remove the bells and whistles and offer a basic product that is just as reliable and efficient, but at a lower price.
“Reliability and efficiency I can’t scale down, but aesthetics, yes,” Ranganath said.
Grundfos India imports components from its parent, buys some parts locally and assembles the pumps at the plant in Chennai.
The India development programme, which kicked off six months back, has three components to it.
One, to introduce solar pumps at a price that would make it affordable for the common man, two, to have a system to filter grey water (wastewater generated from hand wash basins, showers and baths) and, three, to build an equipment to help consumers measure the power and water consumed.
Globally, Grundfos makes pumps that have a range of applications — domestic, industrial and commercial — for water and wastewater systems.
In 2012, it reported a turnover of about €3 billion and made nearly 18 million pumps.
The Indian subsidiary had a turnover of about Rs 320 crore with a net profit of Rs 5 crore.
Grundfos always focussed on the lifecycle cost of its pumps, which are said to be more energy-efficient than the competition. But, as Prola admitted, this concept was difficult to sell.
‘Not expensive’
“We cost more, but we are not expensive,” he pointed out. “Nobody asked us to do energy-efficient products. But we spent a lot of money going that route,” said Henrik Kjeldgaard, Business Development Director, reiterating that Grundfos will not give up its focus on energy efficiency.
On R&D in India, Prola said the aim is to develop products for the local market. The product will not be different from that developed for other markets, but will come with some modifications. The India strategy is focused more on the local markets than on exports, he added.
Company officials indicated that Grundfos will look at making dispensers for Grundfos LifeLink, a solar-power driven unit that provides water to remote areas, in India because of the cost advantage and design capability.
The LifeLink system with closed water dispenser units including submersible pumps is in use in Kenya.
>ramakrishnan.n@thehindu.co.in
(The writer was in Denmark at the invitation of Grundfos.)
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