Saumil Shah, Director Business Development, Kaushik Engineering Works
Elaborating further he claimed adding that the company's original product range includes asphalt equipment for making roads but subsequently entered into manufacturing equipment for concrete industry and has recently added Road Sweepers to its product line. Our current focus is on designing asphalt batch mix plants which are of higher capacity that can generate revenue five times more than the drum mix plant. Our engineers are working brilliantly on the design and it is hoped that they will finalize the same very shortly. Currently, it has no significant collaboration with outside partners but we are looking for foreign partners for technical collaborations on a joint venture module and are also looking for players to work with us on the basis of exclusive dealership agreements for sales in specific regions. We anticipate that implementation of either of the plans will lead to the firm possibilities for our future growth, he insisted.
He informed that most of the developed countries are using only batch-mix plants and are opposed to drum mix plants. We expect that it is also going to be the future of India as the country started growing and becoming more developed by the day. "Furthermore, with the upcoming government's regulation it will become obligatory for big projects to use asphalt batch mix plants in stead of drum mix plants. So, developing our business in this area will become vital for our continued growth in the future.
In the recent past, we have seen India, Brazil and China emerging as major global players but now more companies are entering into the Indian market that means stiff competition in the near future. Small companies that are working in niche markets are always going to be around but medium sized companies like ours, are either going to disappear or will merge with the larger companies. Now, we have an option that either we should focus on a very specific area, working with a selected group of customers, or should grow rapidly to compete with the multinational companies and remain the decorator of our own destiny.
Kaushik is increasing its geographical presence not only in India but also in the overseas markets. At present, its products are exported to South Asian, African and Middle East countries and recently to Europe as well. The company entered into the European market by selling its plant in Poland. Around 50% of its products are sold in export market and it is aggressively promoting the sales of its products in the Latin American and Eastern European markets.
Environmental considerations are another important factor for the future. In India, the most popular method is wet dust type pollution control but in developed countries, a bag house type filter unit is used which is more effective as it can redirect what it collects back into the plant. India and other developing countries cannot yet afford this type of facility but as they move towards working with big plants like Asphalt Batch Mix Plants – they need to adopt bag house type filter units. Kaushik is setting up a Service Centre in Kenya to cater to African markets and has plans to set up Service Centre in other export region. Various technical services provided by the company are to support its products supported by its well established R&D setup including rendering, designing, and engineering support for its new Batch mix plant technology. The company's future plan is to get maximum growth in the immediate future to take advantage of the current infrastructure boom, he concluded.
