Now almost a year has passed of the Group’s successful operations in India. What are the company’s product lines available for this market and the responses they have received so far?
Haulotte machines have been in India for the last 8 to 10 years. We have set up our Indian subsidiary in line with our Group’s objective of “Customer Proximity”. This involves the establishment of a commercial & services network closer to our customers, with teams of professionals who understand the needs and expectations of their markets and provide the support to our clients. In short, we are in the process of consolidating our operations at the moment.
The whole range of AWP products and telehandler’s range is available for sale in India. The markets have well received our products and our market share is steadily increasing.
How different you find the Indian market place vis-à-vis the markets abroad? Do you think that their higher cost is a deterrent as far as Indian market is concerned which is more price sensitive?
The Indian market is very interesting; the demand in AWP is growing with the construction market and infrastructure sectors. We understand the fact that the this market is very price sensitive and taking the same in to cognizance we adopt a very competitive pricing strategy for the Indian market.
What are Haulotte Group expectations from its Indian operations? How does the company propose to promote, and achieve greater customers’ proximity and increase your footprint in India’s vast market?
We are quiet buoyant about the potential of the Indian market has for our product line and that is why we are here in India to be able to serve our customers at close proximity effectively and efficiently.
With our Haulotte India website in place (www.haulotte.in) and our regular features and advertisement are important Equipment / Infrastructure magazines like yours.
How has the fall of rupee impacted Haulotte business operation? What enabling steps are you taking to minimize the impact?
The fall of the rupee as well as the current economic scenario in the country is affecting business for everyone. Although requirements of machines are rising but owing to the aforesaid factors decision making is getting delayed as customers are apprehensive of the current situation.
We at Haulotte understand the need of the hour and are giving our best possible prices to our customers. The silver lining for us in these trying times is we have been able to increase our market share considerably.
Safety concern is the most important issue of machines as operators operate at considerable height please tell us the main safety features of Haulotte products.
Haulotte Access equipment are manufactured as per European CE standards confirming to EN280, which are amongst the most stringent in terms of safety. There are safety cutoff systems which prevent the machine to be overloaded or work at an outreach which can result in an accident due to negligence of the operator. Our objective is to produce machines which give a confidence to work at heights.
Sometime back Haulotte had announced the launch of its Entrapment Prevention System, ACTIV’ Shield© Bar for UK market. Is there any plan to introduce the same in the Indian market for operators’ safety and reducing the risk of its entrapment?
The kit ACTIV’ Shield© Bar will be available for sale worldwide on diesel machines beginning of January 2014.
As a focused concept in India, how would you like to address the training and regular maintenance issues as an essential part of technical services to the clients?
Some of our customers are already in touch with IPAF, the association for the promotion of safety. It’s a key issue for us and our customers to promote safety at working height. Concerning the maintenance issues, we have to work as close as possible with our customers in order to provide support and training for the best use of our Haulotte machines.
