Jeffrey Foregard General Manager - Asia Executive Director ANCA Pty. Ltd.
Q. ANCA has gained substantial market share in Indian machine tool industry, please elucidate the success story of the company? ANCA started our business in India through a local dealer and it soon became apparent that this was not the right strategy given the requirements of our customers and the market.
We then took a decision to set up our own company with direct local employees throughout India, and this together with the superior technology offered with the ANCA products proved to be a successful move and saw us capitalize on the market and increase our market share.
Our highly skilled engineering and marketing teams constantly strive to create superior products resulting in ANCA continuing to maintain its position as world leader in our segment of the market. New innovative technologies such as Linear Motors and Non Contact Laser measuring systems along with our production monitoring software differentiates us from our competitors. The flexibility and step-changing technology that we offer is what customers are seeing as the key advantage. We have faster cycle times along with superior surface finishes on tools along with the ability to run the factory unmanned for 24/7 production.
This I believe is the future, and we have it today.
Q. Please brief us about the exports and overseas operations & what are the global alliances that has been made in order to out-front the competition? With 98% of our sales out of Australia, ANCA is truly a global company with our Corporate HQ in Melbourne along with our core manufacturing facility. We have a second manufacturing facility in Rayong, Thailand and an electronics manufacturing site in Taichung, Taiwan. Our sales and marketing offices are headquartered in three locations, namely Shanghai China which takes care of the Asian markets, Michigan USA which covers the Americas (North & South) and Weinheim Germany which covers all of Europe. Satellite offices are also set-up in key locations around the world. All these offices are supported by local staff members.
Q. What are the market prospects for the ANCA products in India and How do you plan to position these products? Our prospects in the Indian market looks to be good and this has been proven by our success to date. The growth in the automotive sector along with the global alliances of Indian companies with some of our International customers has had a positive impact on our business.
In terms of servicing the sector, our Thailand manufacturing facility has the capability to provide a total quality product at an acceptable price level for the Indian market and this has helped us to increase our share in this lucrative market. This coupled with our local footprint have positioned us for growth. Today, the volumes are satisfactory, however, the future looks promising and I am anticipating to see tremendous growth in our segment over the next five years.
Q. Can you brief us about the marketing strategies that were applied in order to stand out in the competition of machine tool industry? At ANCA, we understand that a strong brand is key to your success and enable you to stand out from your competition as well as attract the best people to work with you. We are also fortunate that the company has a proud history of reinvesting in developing new products and technology which means our machines capabilities can speak for themselves.
Our marketing strategies include attending the key major machine tool exhibitions along with talking to our customers about their individual needs and then ensuring we are able to meet them. I believe that the value of building close relationships with your customers and taking the time to really understand their needs is core to any marketing strategy.
In this industry marketing should keep the industry up-to- date on your latest product or service as technology is constantly evolving. The ANCA machine is also highly flexible so we want our customers to intimately understand its capabilities and how they can get best out of their machine. We do this via regular web seminars, monthly e-mail marketing campaigns and regular updates to our robust social community. Finally, we have an extensive advertising budget that enables us to reach our customers in high numbers. But it should never end at the sale. One of our key strategies to keep the customer happy is to provide the best possible after sales and service. This included moving to larger premises to support our initiative to stock a range of spare parts in our Bangalore facility along with demonstration machines.
Q. Please elucidate in brief about the company’s infrastructure & What are the measure that are being taken from the product manufacturing to distribution? The ANCA products are built in two of our manufacturing locations, namely, Melbourne in Australia and Rayong in Thailand. Both of these factories adopt exactly the same total quality principles ensuring our products reach our customers on time and to specification. We adopt lean manufacturing principles along with 5S throughout our organization. Keys factors include reducing our inventories worldwide whilst still maintaining a delivery schedule that meets our customers needs. Our global quality team constantly review processes and procedures to ensure we are delivering a premium service from the sale through to delivery to after sales and this is driven right through our organization from the top down.
Q. Brief us about the R&D and Quality policy for your business? ANCA invests heavily in R&D in various parts of the world. We have dedicated software and engineering teams located in Melbourne, Bangalore, Rayong and Taiwan supporting our global R&D initiatives and this has proved a huge success for us. Our substantial dollar investment in R&D allows us to continue to create new solutions for our customers that a year ago seemed impossible. For example, our new LaserPlus product has revolutionised the market, using a laser beam to measure the tools dimensions and then automatically compensate to maintain required tolerances achieving much higher efficiencies and accuracy.
The fundamental promise of our product is that it provides reliable precision grinding and if our quality standards are not right we have not met our promise. Our quality policy is simple, if it does not meet our strict quality control standards, we will not ship the product.
Q. Please comment on the current machine tool scenario in India? I believe the current situation for the machine tool business in India is very healthy. As growth in other markets appears to be returning back to normal levels, I see India continuing to develop and could potentially be the next major market for ANCA in years to come. This is the reason we decided to expand our operations in Bangalore to ensure we are capable of meeting increasing demand. The larger facility along with substantial investment in a software R&D team based in Bangalore allows us the ability to respond to our customers needs immediately.
Q. Could you brief us on Indian & Global perspective of machine tool industry? What are the distinguishing factors? The industry we are in is cyclical. Fortunately, all machine tool builders have enjoyed tremendous growth over the last four to five years on the back of the huge demand of smart phones. This has been a major driving factor in machine tool growth and whilst this trend continues we can see a positive outcome for the machine tool industry. However, we cannot be complacent and we are also targeting other segments such as automotive, aerospace and medical to name a few to ensure we have the ability to diversify so when one segment is down we are actively strong in some of the other segments.
Q. In your opinion how can the Indian machine tool industry become globally competitive? Maintain a total quality philosophy and ensure this is achieved. This along with keeping up with the available moving technologies will go a long way to help the local machine tool industry in India. Q10. What are the key technological trends that are driving machine tool industry? In our segment, customers are looking to produce cutting tools in both mass production and small batch runs. In order for our machines to meet these two very different needs we need to have the best possible technologies built into our products to enable total flexibility for our customers. Life span of the machine along with high accuracy is also critical from our customers point of view.
Q. How far the factors like government norms, excise duty, taxation, exim policies are affecting your business? Whilst the duties and import tariffs have reduced dramatically over the past ten years or so, they are still on the high side and this along with difficult import/ export terms does continues to be a challenge for companies importing and on some cases re-exporting machine tools into and out of India.
Q. What are the best possible remedies you can advise in order to maintain the high profitability in the shrinking margins market of India? This is a difficult question to answer. There are a number of scenarios which include differentiating your products from your competitors, offering something special from a technology point of view are some of the methods we use to ensure we are capable of achieving our profit targets. However, with the standard machines it does prove difficult so I believe it comes down to delivering a quality product to our customers along with providing the best possible after sales support. This will ensure customers do return to us to do business.
Q. What is your vision for your company? To be an agile world class leader in supplying innovative technology. To be a leading designer and manufacturer of high quality and innovative products and solutions.
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