Ammann India: Anand Sundaresan, Managing Director

There is so much to do in India with respect to Infrastructure development, therefore, organisations with long-term commitments will definitely invest in expansion, R&D, new product launches, upgradations, and advanced technologies.

We have one of the most advanced control systems on our asphalt plants.
Our control systems enable us to remotely access our plants and attend to any problems that may arise, including replacing parts by the customer’s maintenance staff under the guidance of our service engineer. We can even upload or download the software remotely.

This way, we are ensuring that our asphalt plants work without any hinderance. Our customers can reach us 24x7 via a toll-free line - be it for a machine breakdown, maintenance or parts supply issue, or for online training etc. Our service engineers have been travelling to customers’ project sites even during the pandemic for erection and commissioning of the plants, while exercising the utmost caution and following our standard SOPs.


We are addressing all the concerns of our customers regarding their equipment.
It is true that many contractors have been hit very badly due to the pandemic and are facing severe liquidity issues. They are also looking at alternative options like renting, leasing, buy-back or refurbishing options for their equipment. With respect to refurbishment or buy-back, we are always open to discussions with them. As regards leasing, there are many finance companies offering this option, provided there is support from the OEM. We are quite open to this, but only through the finance or leasing companies.

Renting of equipment is a different ball game and we do not have any expertise in this area, though there are some good rental companies with whom we work.


I am hoping that things will start improving but overall, I will say that FY21-22 will not be great.
Since the second quarter of FY20-21, things started improving substantially, but, unfortunately, they did not sustain beyond the last quarter of FY20-21. There has been a serious effect of this on the availability of materials, logistics, etc. with most of the states in India under lockdown. My personal feeling is that the situation will start to improve end-July onwards.


Constant reinforcement of our commitment and confidence in the growth prospects of the infrastructure industry provides a sense of certainty to our employees.
I don’t think that any manufacturer has lost confidence on the growth prospect of this country. In fact, most of the construction equipment manufacturers are exercising caution and are implementing cost control measures to deal with the current slowdown. Use of technology has helped us stay connected with all our business activities.


We have put in place procedures to safeguard the health and well-being of our employees and keep their morale high. We have been motivating our employees to get vaccinated and today we are happy to say that 85% of our 45-year-old and above employees have been vaccinated at least once. We have regular management meetings to check the health of our employees as well as their family members. We have hygiene rules and facilities, time to time sanitization of the workplace, safe distancing, and health and safety guidelines for our field service teams at customer sites.