Sharing insights over the prevalent scenario of pump manufacturing sector, Kamalesh Choudhury, Vice President – Operations, Mody Industries (F.C.) opines the need for customers to understand the long-term capital values in purchasing quality products
Considering the volatility in the prevalent in the infra-construction sector’s market scenario, which segments act as the major demand drivers for the products from Mody Industries?
Our business is mainly focused on infrastructure projects. Hence, the core infrastructure projects along with steel and power are the major sectors catered through our pumps. However, the infrastructure industry has witnessed numerous downturns in the recent past, primarily due to the unstable financial scenario. Last year, for instance, witnessed cancellation and delay in numerous infrastructure projects which added pressure on the market volatility. In addition, land acquisition has evolved as a major roadblock in the execution process of infrastructure projects. The uncertainty in the political scenario has further clouded growth prospects.
Yet, we have succeeded in sustaining the market pressure. The effective strategic planning approach maintained in our operations and the standard ensured through our products and technologies has assisted us in sustaining our market position as a quality provider. The other aspect includes expansion of our product range, thereby enabling us to cater diverse sectors. We will be expanding our product range, catering especially to the utility sector. We are optimistic about delivering a balanced growth performance through our initiative to cater to varied business verticals. We are hopeful of implementing these operational plans by March 2014.
How do you review the role of technology in ensuring quality service?
Adoption and implementation of effective technologies always guarantee good quality operations and the same applies to the pumps industry. Fortunately, Mody Industries is always successful in meeting the quality demands of our customers. Our quality-focused approach has enabled us to establish itself as a guaranteed and trustworthy product manufacturer in the market base. We implement international standards in our products and this has evidently helped in delivering advanced operational abilities.
Financial support or lack of awareness – which is a major hurdle influencing the customer’s preference towards quality products?
Finance is a major influencing factor on the customer’s purchasing behavior. Due to the financial constraints, it is often observed that a customer settles for short-term benefits and ignores the long-term capital value of the products. In such a financially-tied situation, their choice is often inclined towards products available at a cheaper price and cheap quality, mostly offered by the unorganized sector. The presence of such unorganized sectors providing an option to deliver low-quality products has definitely impacted the pumps manufacturing segment’s growth prospects.
Also Read: LARR Act Will Have Retarding Effect on Realty Sector
Another major hindrance is the lack of awareness among the customers towards the utilization of quality technologies and products. The customers need to understand the benefits and long-term capital value in purchasing a quality product. A quality and standard pump can deliver minimum energy consumption, offer increased operational hours, low breakdowns and minimal or zero maintenance. All these factors need to be clearly understood and adopted by the customers. The government and regulatory bodies can play a major role in enhancing the awareness among customers towards qualitative products. For instance, an implementation of penalty over high energy-consuming pumps can enforce the customers to switch towards high quality products rather than the alternative low-standard ones.
