Q) GROB has gained substantial market share in Indian machine tool industry, please elucidate the success story of the company?
Since its entry in to Indian market in 2007, Grob gained substantial market share with proven strategies of the company in similar markets. We initially focused on automotive OEM’s, followed by their tier 1 vendors with our system machines and later with a big bang in die & mold and aerospace industry with our state of the art universal horizontal 5 axes machining centers. Continuous year on year increase in business and market share fuelled our thoughts for further expansion in Indian market. The key factor for success of Grob in India and world wide is our highly reliable machines with most advanced technology and the best in the industry service support to customers.
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?
At the moment we export our services to overseas projects as well, thanks to the high skill levels of our engineers. Future plans are already set in place to supply customer specific process related technology in the beginning followed by machines from India to southeast Asian countries. Grob is a globally operating country with headquarters , main manufacturing plant in Germany with additional production plants in Brazil, USA , China and Italy supported by its own worldwide subsidiaries handling sales & service . Continuous development of new technologies for the future upcoming demand of world market, Our owner family support for sustained growth in the company by reinvesting the entire profit for up gradation of technology in production processes & expansion of production facilities and focus on continuous improvement in performance of our machines will always keep us as market leaders. We say “ Other have it easy they just have to be better than the rest, But at GROB every day we have to be better than GROB”
Q) What are the market prospects for the GROB products in India and How do you plan to position these products?
GROB sees huge potential in Indian market for its products in the years to come, accordingly plans have already been worked out for implementation starting from 2017, to be always ready to serve the growing demands of the market . Eying at the forecasted future demand from Indian market, GROB started huge investment in setting up its plant in India which will be 6th in the world.
Q) Can you brief us about the marketing strategies that were applied in order to stand out in the competition of machine tool industry?
GROB marketing strategy is very simple “ don’t look for a new customer everyday, instead build long term trustable partnership with existing customers and increase your business share with them “. Operating in highly competitive machine tool business, you have no chance to make mistakes and you should provide unprecedented service support to your customers, this is the main philosophy of GROB. At GROB customer success is our success and customer is first.
Q) Brief us about the R&D and Quality policy for your business?
One of the biggest department in GROB Group is its R&D and engineering with over 900 engineers working on continuous development of new technologies for tomorrows market need and at the same time focusing on reduction of number of parts in the machine which helps in increasing machine reliability and energy saving. GROB is the first machine tool company to sense the need of new technologies for the fast emerging electro mobility segment outfacing IC engines worldwide. GROB is proud say that it bagged huge business in this new segment and again retaining its market leadership in already delivering several turnkey projects for electro mobility.
Q) Could you brief us on Indian & Global perspective of machine tool industry? What are the distinguishing factors?
Machine tool is the core of mechanical manufacturing industry, traditionally India always looked at short term where as the developed and developing nations looked at long term vision and perspective. We can clearly witness it today that there is a swift change in Indian vision and perspective inline with global markets towards machine tool industry.
Q) What are the key technological trends that are driving machine tool industry?
Industry 4.0 is one of the hottest topic, GROB to maintain its market leadership position launched its own in-house develop GROB net 4 industry. Highly reliable , accurate, energy efficient and low life cycle cost is need of the day, a lot needs to be done in this are with modern technologies in machine tool industry. Aim at dry machining and MQL to support swatch Bharat moment to make clean and green India.
Q) How do your perceive the future of the Indian machine tool industry ?
For sure it will be one of the key industry fuelling the growth of Indian economy. The initiative of make in India by Prime Minister Mody is already well seen in the manufacturing industry, machine tool industry as a back bone of manufacturing always has enormous potential to grow and to become one of the top 5 countries .
Q) How far the factors like government norms, excise duty, taxation, exim policies are affecting your business?
Thanks to the new regime in power, things are getting simplified in many areas paving ways for smooth day today operational issues and taxation. At the same time I have to admit that certain policies and new regulations specially meant for MNC’s are making it difficult for operating in India, for ex: BEPS and related party transactions in Indian customs, hope Indian Union Government will look in to these issues.
Q) What are the best possible remedies you can advise in order to maintain the high profitability in the shrinking margins market of India?
I believe that the margins in India are reasonable and comparable with several other countries. The ways to improve your profitability is to deliver a reliable quality product, increase local value addition, depend on lean manufacturing and focus on new technologies to save energy which is a day today and long term exepense of your customers.
What is your vision for your company ?
Being a machine tools man I wish India to be one of the top machine tools producing nation in the world. Mera Bharat Mahan, Swatch Machine Tool Swatch India.
