Energy for growth

Will they outperform the Australians this year?

Huzefa Poonawala has a competitive streak. Huzefa is Head of Marketing at Hager India. He is standing in the foyer of the new production site in Pune, discussing customer-focused campaigns and initiatives he and his colleagues are currently overseeing across eight major Indian cities. The response so far has been very encouraging. Hager Group’s business here is growing; modest beginnings, nonetheless now in double-digit figures. Huzefa has his sights set on more ambitious targets, “… we’d like at some point that our growth outstrip that of Hager Australia,” he explains with a smile, “it would be amazing if we could overtake them.”

150 employees work in two shifts to manufacture Hager products. The excellent working environment and high safety standards mean that positions at Hager are highly sought after.

Sales offices in eight major Indian cities are coordinated from Hager Group’s head office in Pune.

The sprawling city of Pune in the Indian state of Mahashtra is considered something of an ‘Oriental Oxford’. Its more than 100 technical colleges and universities produce many highly qualified workers. The city also presents quite a traditional image on the street level.

Protection devices are still manufactured by hand. At Hager production site in Pune, everything is done by the female employees.

The sporting rivalry between the two great cricketing nations, India and Australia, is no secret. To date, India has chalked up two Cricket World Cup titles while Australia has achieved a record five. It’s no surprise then that the employees of Hager India are keen to outperform their Australian counterparts, who are also doing very well.

And, around the site, it is clear that the signs are promising. In 2016, after almost 9 years in a small leased production facility, Hager India increased its production space tenfold with the opening of its new production site. The site Huzefa is guiding his visitors around is situated in an industrial estate on the outskirts of the sprawling city of Pune in the western Indian state of Maharashtra. Parked in the shade behind the main hall is the bus that brings in workers and returns them to their homes at the end of each shift. Next to it stands a powerful, state-of-the-art diesel generator that supplies the site with power in the event of temporary fluctuations in the public grid or brief power cuts, which, Huzefa confirms, can still happen a dozen or so times on a typical working day, even in the comparatively modern city of Pune.

In India, there are 1.3 billion people on the move, it’s little wonder therefore that the trains and streets are so busy.

It takes at least four hours to travel the 130 kilometres from Pune to the coastal city of Mumbai.

As a centre of industry and research, the town of Pune has more than 100 technical colleges and universities and is therefore an excellent source for highly qualified, technically skilled labour. All 150 production employees at Hager India are women. As Huzefa explains, “…we are doing our bit to strengthen the role of women in Indian society.” At Hager India, not only do these production employees and their 75 colleagues in marketing, sales and administration enjoy an exceptionally modern workplace, the facility is also extremely safe.

Seema Nikam, for example, is a 24-year-old graduate from Pune Engineering College who previously worked at a different industrial company before moving to Hager Group as a quality assurance manager. “Since joining Hager Group, I haven’t seen a single accident in the workplace,” she says. Her colleague Nituja Patil, also 24, manages a nine-person working group in MCB production. “You can really feel that Hager Group is a family business,” she says. “Everyone at every level of the hierarchy is open to dialogue and suggestions.”

The new production site was supported considerably by the Indian government’s Make in India programme, set up to attract foreign investors to this emerging nation. While foreign companies would have previously required a local partner to be able to open subsidiaries on the subcontinent, they have been able to act completely independently in many sectors of the economy since 2014. The Make in India programme is proving successful, infrastructures are being developed and jobs created.

Hager Group was one of the companies who invested in this country of 1.3 billion people. A 4,000 m2 manufacturing facility for Hager Group was built; two modern MCB production lines currently take up the production area and there is still space to develop if needed. As Dinesh Gurav, qualified electrical engineer and deputy site manager, puts it, “…our factory is clearly designed for growth. We also aim to generate as much added value as possible locally.”

In India, most businesses are run on the streets whether you’re selling food...

...or electrical cables.

It is important to note that in India government contracts call for at least 50  % of added value to be generated locally and the Indian government is very active when it comes to awarding contracts. Local production also results in savings on transport costs and import taxes. “Our aim is to strike a balance between local requirements and the demands of a global brand,” explains Atulya Chandra Managing Director Hager India. “For us, this ‘glocal’ approach is the key to success in India.”

The moulds for injection moulding machines, for example, are already being supplied by companies from the local area and Chandra and his colleagues are currently setting up a local production network with other partners. Even some of the state-of-the-art stamping, spooling and injection-moulding machines, which currently run day and night, have been designed and built on site with support from Hager Group colleagues in France. The finished products are, in turn, tested exhaustively in a fully equipped test laboratory to ensure they are standards compliant. This laboratory makes it possible to observe how a 950° glowing wire is inserted into a Hager MCB to check its fire resistance. The plastic casing melts, but does not ignite. Test passed.

“We take no chances when it comes to the safety of our products for our customers,” explains Dinesh Gurav. The brand name is ultimately synonymous with quality products. This is also why Hager India always markets itself with the German flag together with the tag line ‘German Quality’ in both its advertising and brochures for the Indian market.

Dinesh is confident of the growing demand for such products on the Indian market. What is the reason for all this optimism? To understand this, you must first drive the 25 kilometres from Hager Group site to Pune, the city of 3.4 million people, fight your way through the hustle and bustle of auto-rickshaws, trucks and cars, past the magnificent Aga Khan Palace, known for its garden in which Mahatma Gandhi’s ashes are preserved, and into the city centre, where British colonial buildings line up alongside corrugated iron huts, shopping malls and modern residential neighbourhoods.

IT entrepreneur Vijay Joshi has also equipped his apartment in Pune with state-of-the-art building technology...

...including switches from the Berker B.IQ range.

With reliable installations from Hager insysta range, well-known medical practitioner Dr. Vijay Shah is able to relax in his home.

Just a stone’s throw away is the home of Vijay and Sarita Joshi. The Palladium, the classy 16-storey apartment block in which they live overlooks the parks and city centre of Pune. Sarita Joshi is a consultant and motivational speaker; her husband a successful IT entrepreneur who travels the world with his work. Having come to appreciate the convenience of modern electrical installations on his travels, the CEO decided to equip his penthouse with switches from the Berker B.IQ range. While Sarita Joshi likes how easy the switches are to use, her husband delights in their technical features. “I think many customers in India today do not realise how much modern building technology can enrich their lives,” says the entrepreneur. “There are many people in this country who could afford and would love to have premium technology like this. It is the knowledge of this technology that is currently lacking.”

Someone whose eyes have been opened is Dr. Vijay Shah, a successful homoeopath and medical practitioner who lives with his family in a tasteful 200 m2 apartment in Mumbai. When he renovated his apartment, Dr. Shah installed Hager distribution boxes, motion sensors in the bathrooms and insysta switches – a range of Hager switches designed specifically for the Indian market. He was won over by the exceptional finish and solid workmanship of Hager products. But most of all, Dr. Shah says, “With Hager solutions, short-circuits are no longer a problem for us, which unfortunately was the case with local brands.”

Rajesh and...

...son Vishal run one of the oldest and most successful wholesalers businesses for Hager products in India.

Sales and stock-keeping are still processed manually.

This comes as no surprise to electrical distributor Rajesh. His company, R&D Automations, is one the most experienced and successful Hager wholesalers across India. “We have been selling Hager products since 1997 and, since that time, have not seen a single product defect.” Together with his sons, Rajesh distributes Hager Group solutions throughout India from a small shop in central Mumbai. The secret to their success is extensive knowledge of the product range, a fully-stocked warehouse and excellent relationships with switchgear manufacturers, electricians and electronics distributors.

“Our competitors are very aggressive and the market is extremely tough, so the mid-tier customer segment is not interesting to us,” says Vishal, the understudy to the boss. “Our sole focus is the premium segment, customers in this segment value quality and are willing to pay a little more for it.”

Hager is still a relatively small supplier in the huge Indian market. However Huzefa Poonawala explains, this works in Hager’s favour in comparison to the large local and international markets: “As a modestly-sized provider, we are able to respond significantly faster than larger local and international brands. Orders are ready for dispatch within a day and can be shipped to any construction site in India within seven days.”

And that’s even more important, as there is a great deal of construction work going on across the entire subcontinent right now. The country is on the rise; many young people are striving to enter the middle class and around one third of the Indian population is under the age of 25. What’s more, for 2018, the IMF is forecasting continued economic growth for the country of more than 7  %. The only thing outstripping the expansion of the market in India is the growth generated by Huzefa Poonawala and his team. To create greater awareness of the Hager Group solutions, the 70-strong sales and distribution team initially turned its focus on India’s eight largest cities where trends are set and high earners such as the Joshis and the Shahs live. Medium-sized metropolitan areas and the provinces will follow in a second phase. Their growth plans are suitably ambitious: within the next five years, the aim is to triple sales for Hager India.

So beating the Australians could well happen.

No other city in India is as populous as the 19-million metropolis of Mumbai. And in no other city is there such a stark contrast between the past and present, the rich and the poor.