Ashok Tanna, MD LINNHOFF IND PVT LTD (Left) Chandrashekhar V, MD & CEO, GMMCO (Right)In a strategic marketing alliance, LINNHOFF India, a leading manufacturer of asphalt mixing, has formed a dealership alliance with GMMCO, a leader in infrastructure development. Under the partnership, GMMCO will undertake exclusive sales, marketing and services of LINNHOFF products that include hot mix plants, pothole jet patchers, concrete batch mix plants, and concrete slip form pavers, across the country. Ashok Tanna, MD and Abhijit Padhye, President – Sales & marketing, LINNHOFF India along with Chandrashekhar, MD & CEO, and P. Ravishankar, Senior VP (Allied Business), GMMCO, discuss the synergies between the two companies with P.P. Basistha on the sidelines of the partnership signing event held in Mumbai.
What does LINNHOFF’s partnership with GMMCO entail?
Ashok Tanna & Padhye: LINNHOFF, with its wide range of asphalt batch mix and drum mix plants and allied products manufactured indigenously at its plant in Pune, has created a sizeable business footprint in the Indian construction market. Our strategy now is to expand our footprint further with GMMCO, who will be promoting our entire range of 80-400 tph plants and other products across the country, and help us expand and consolidate our business. The alliance will enhance the synergies between the two companies through technical support and servicing abilities in order to meet our customer’s needs, optimally. The alliance will also enable road contractors to get complete one-stop solutions, both through Cat and LINNHOFF products.
How will GMMCO leverage its skill in marketing and servicing of LINNHOFF products as traditionally your field of expertise has been mineral extraction, bulk material handling and haulage?
Chandrashekhar & Ravishankar: GMMCO has been providing marketing and products services support to Caterpillar products such as wheel loaders, excavators, haulage trucks, skid steer loaders, surface miners etc., for 33 years. All the products and solutions are geared towards bringing value to customers through reduction in cost per ton of operations. Our expertise in this will enable us to render the requisite services to LINNHOFF’s product range. Under the alliance, LINNHOFF will provide information on technical product support and solutions, which will enable us to leverage our support and service capabilities for their products. Our wide network of dealers is well positioned to cater to both institutional and retail customers, with timely product availability and support. In fact, we have set up a ‘Newer Allied Business Division’ to promote products that lie outside our domain.
Installation and commissioning of asphalt batch mix and drum mix plants require expert skills and service capabilities; how is GMMCO positioned to undertake this for LINNHOFF products?
Chandrashekhar: GMMCO has been providing sales and support of construction and mining machines, captive power solutions and engines for various applications. We have expertise and experience in the installation, commissioning, and servicing of Caterpillar diesel gensets on difficult locations, and with minimal downtime. We have commissioned the largest dragline in India with a workforce of 300 at Reliance’s ultra-mega power plant at Sasan. We have commissioned and operated the highest capacity longwall system of 3 Mntpa at the Adriyala project of Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL). We have executed underground coal mining projects of SCCL and SECL on cost/ton basis. Given our wide experience in many challenging projects, we have the necessary skill and capability to undertake the installation and commissioning of LINNHOFF plants.
LINNHOFF & GMMCO Team (L to R) Mr. Balasaheb Khune, Mr. Ashok Tanna, Mr. V. Chandrashekhar and Mr. Rajendra ParwalHow will LINNHOFF and GMMCO leverage each other’s capabilities and strengths?
Ashok Tanna: While Linnhoff has in the past supplied for F1 Race Track in Noida; Bandra - Worli Sea Link in Mumbai; Kurnool to Hubli Road, Ludhiana to Panipat Road, runway in Mumbai Airport; and, Sobha City in Kerala, GMMCO has represented Caterpillar — the world leader in machines and engines — for almost three decades in India. LINNHOFF India will provide GMMCO a team of technical manpower across 123 outlets for installing and operating its plants. GMMCO is investing in digitization and telematics for preventive and predictive maintenance, and is streamlining its parts supply, such that the machine operators derive lower lifecycle costs and face lower downtimes.
Chandrasekhar: We are fully geared up to serve LINNHOFF with efficient product support and achieve maximum uptime and productivity. GMMCO has more than 700 personnel and can achieve the target set by LINNHOFF to increase its business volume further with our strong and vast service network that offers highly differentiated services to all our customers.
How will LINNHOFF create a strong brand positioning in the face of increasing competition in the Indian marketplace?
Ashok Tanna: Our plants ensure ease of installation and generate the rated throughput. Most importantly, the plants, with their advanced burners, work on the highest value of heat. We offer 90% percent recycling of bitumen in our RAP-enabled plants as compared to the 70% by other companies. A company like ours needs an equally commanding and dominant player like GMMCO, which is one of the foremost organizations for infrastructure building and power solutions and we are confident that it can understand our needs in the best way possible. Together, we are going to provide a one-stop shop for products and solutions in India.
