Pearey Lall Looks to Enlarge Customer Base

Pearey Lall & Sons (E.P.) Limited (PLS) is promoting its mobile cranes to institutional buyers and looking forward to enlarge its business presence. It is now targeting private contractors by carrying out improvisations in its existing product range along with planned introduction of newer products, backed by leveraging its brand presence. L&ST finds out.

Delhi-NCR based mobile cranes manufacturer PLS has its origins dating back to 1948. It set up its manufacturing facility in 1960 at Sahibabad in UP on the outskirts of Delhi. The initial products included recovery vehicles of armed forces and other wheeled applications.

Moving forward, the family-owned business entity undertook manufacturing rough terrain, truck mounted, wagon mounted rail cranes and industrial cranes along with some light recovery vehicles. The cranes were manufactured under technical collaborations with global mobile crane manufacturers of repute. This comprised Bumar of Poland for hydraulic truck mounted cranes in 1980, Industrial cranes IF series with Jones Cranes of the UK. The technical assistance from Jones Cranes was once again sought when the company decided to produce 20 ton rough terrain cranes in 1985. The company made a major breakthrough when it entered into technical alliance with Locatelli of Italy for 35-40 tons rough terrain cranes. Over the years certain modifications were carried out in the cranes, making them adaptable to local conditions.

The products were sold by the company primarily to institutional government buyers. PLS has been into a contract manufacturing agreement with renowned OEM for manufacturing Hydraulic mobile slew cranes (complete equipment) and pick & carry cranes from year 2001 to 2013.

Buoyed by the growth of the infrastructure sector, the company decided to tap the growing market represented by private contractors. "We are getting positive response for our entire range of 20-22-30-35-40 tons, rough terrain cranes from the new buyers. The cranes are suitable to work in mines, railways, defense, and infrastructure projects, notably metro railway projects, tunnels freeways, ports, airports, hydro and thermal power projects. The cranes are equipped with BS-III, engines, as per customers' requirements," says Mr. Khalid Aziz, Vice President, Corporate, PLS.

Mentioning further, he says, "Responding to the safety and higher equipment availability and productivity requirements of the infrastructure sector, the cranes are fitted with state-of-the-art electronic data logging systems to monitor the functioning of the products. Giving the emerging applications for lifting heavier capacity loads, we are working on higher capacity rough terrain cranes above 50 tons. The application areas of the cranes will be for infrastructure and industrial construction."

Along with materializing its plans to manufacture higher capacities of rough terrain cranes, PLS is carrying out improvisations in hydraulics of the existing models of rough terrain cranes with commensurate improvements in safety features. Mr. Aziz adds, "Since there are growing requirements of lifting more loads at greater heights in shorter radius, especially for urban infrastructure projects taking place in areas with paucity of space, we are working on improvements in the crane booms."

The company is looking to increase its presence in private sector based on its other product variants. Mr. Aziz says, "We have industrial cranes of 4x2 and 4x4 versions of offer, for ease of operations on difficult terrain." PLS has industrial cranes available with lifting capacities of 10-12-15-18 tons.


Other range of products being planned by PLS for introduction are truck mounted knuckle boom cranes of 9TM, 12TM and 15TM. Mr. Aziz says, "The cranes will be manufactured entirely based on the Indian requirements with customization in hydraulic, electronic and electrical systems"

PLS is at ease going ahead with advancements in its existing range of mobile cranes and plans to introduce new products, given its sprawling manufacturing facility backed by complete testing facility, paint and assembly shop at Sahibabad. Mr. Aziz mentions, "While advanced features, well suited to the applications make the cranes acceptable, it is also our ability to manufacture competitively priced products, based on lean manufacturing practices we are sure that will go on to make our cranes popular."

Taking forward the initiative to expand its customer base, PLS is also strengthening its operators training and maintenance support through its own and dealers located across the country. The company has its service centers at Jodhpur, Chandigarh, Mumbai, Kolkata, Vizag, Kochi, Jamnagar.