Wirtgen's Introduction of Kleeman Crushers in India will be in Phases

Wirtgen group is a 65 years old Germany based family owned company, with brands of Wirtgen, Vogele, Hamm, Kleemann which are more than 130 years old. The group's picturesque plants at Goppingen and Tirschenreuth are among the major production centers producing crushers and road equipment. The plants experienced a major congregation of Wirtgen's global customers, participating at 'Wirtgen Technology Days' event from 23-29 September 2014. The event was marked by major live technical presentations through its brand of newly launched road construction equipment along with showcasing the production facility of Goppingen plant producing tracked crushers. It was essentially a mega marketing exercise, global in its entirety by the Wirtgen Group and saw participation of 4,500 customer representatives along with entourage of Indian customers representing the road contractors fraternity. P.P. Basistha had an opportunity to interact with Mr. Stefan Wirtgen: President and Managing Partner- Wirtgen Group, learning on the new acquisition of asphalt batching plant manufacturing entity Bennighoven, business plans on India, reason for extended entry into the crushing and screening sector and plans to position the company as a total road construction and mineral processing solution provider in near future: Excerpts:

Business plans for crushers and screens in India:
The Indian market has big appetite for road equipment and mineral processing products led by the expansion of road construction sector and coal processing. Based on the firm demand fundamentals from the mineral processing industry we will introduce Kleeman screens in the Indian crushing sector followed by our entire range of Jaw and Cone crushing solutions with adequate service back up. We have hired experienced personnel to provide effective service support and also to promote the crushing business in India. We will target special projects through our Kleeman brand of crushing equipment. Our crushing products will be standardized according to the requirements of the emerging markets. We will customize the crushing technology keeping the requirements of the Indian markets in view. Considering the increased ongoing activities and projected higher future growth, we are expanding and further strengthening our Indian team.

Reason for extended entry into Indian crushing and screening sector. What will be the tentative schedule for launching the entire range of Mobile tracked crushers?
Indian crushing and screening market is highly competitive from the product placement and also the pricing point of view. Given the high potential of business, we will introduce Kleeman range of Mobicat, Mobicone and Mobirex crushers in phases. Initially, it will be the screens, followed by stage wise introduction of other range. However, our initial focus will be on the medium and smaller capacity tracked units and we want to do justice to the service requirements of the customers maintaining right focus.

What are the segments you will compete with and how do you propose to make the products competitive as the units are being equipped with high end Scania engines?
Aimed at larger capacity quarry owners and operators, we will compete with the premium product segment. Once planned for the Indian market, we will equip the units with Deutz and Cummins engines, facilitating easier services.

Acquisition of asphalt batching plant manufacturer Benninghoven and plans to introduce the product for the global and Indian market:
Benninghoven was acquired from Niko of Japan based on our future business strategy to be a total solutions provider in road construction business. This acquisition has strengthened our position, as now we are in a position to offer solutions across the entire vertical of road construction comprising crushing and batching on one end and milling-recycling-mixing-paving and finally compacting on the other end. In order to have specialization on all the ends, we have demarcated the functioning of our subsidiaries, with mineral technology being represented by Kleeman brand aligned with a subdivision taking care of Wirtgen surface miners, and road technology represented by Wirtgen, Vogele and Hamm. With a view to have quality specialization in all the segments and availability of the products, we are making sizeable investments in our operations. We will keep strengthening our research and development appointing almost 400 people this year.

We do not intend to introduce Benninghoven range of asphalt batching plants in the global markets in the next 2-3 years, rather our focus will be to integrate the entity into Wirtgen making the solutions attuned to meet the requirements of the European, Middle East, and African markets. The integration will essentially involve making of solutions attuned to the local operating conditions backed with adequate service and product support. Regular investments in our production, R&D and support facilities have enabled us to retain our strong share in road construction in China, and also in the USA.