—Nigel Baseley, Marketing Director, Perkins Engines Company Ltd
Perkins is set to begin manufacturing its powerful 4000 Series engines in India, and its parent company Caterpillar is to invest $150m in a new plant at Aurangabad in Maharashtra.
Nigel Baseley, Marketing Director for
Perkins Engines shares the details on this new venture and their future plans for India with
Renu Rajaram. The upcoming Aurangabad facility will also be an export hub for Asian destinations, noted Baseley.
Perkins has been working with Indian OEMs for more than 30 years and has developed a reputation for providing dependable power solutions. Please give a brief about Perkins in India.
Perkins has been working in partnership with Indian original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) for more than 30 years. We share a rich heritage with our OEMs here; providing reliable power solutions and services to meet their needs. As our reputation for delivering dependable power has grown, so have our OEM partners whose businesses have grown too. Today, we sell our full range of diesel and gas engines to our Indian OEMs, which are supported by our distribution partners in country, GMMCO Power and Powerparts Pvt Ltd.
To continue to meet our customer needs going forward and ensure we are more responsive, we are investing in a new manufacturing facility in Aurangabad, India. The facility will enable us to manufacture our largest and most powerful range of engines, the 4000 Series, closer to our customers in India and the wider Asia Pacific. The facility, which will be the powerhouse of the Perkins brand in India, will enable us to better meet the growing demand from OEMs for dependable, cost effective power solutions. We are also excited by the opportunity we have to develop a new supply base in India which will support our manufacturing base going forward.
What drove the decision to start manufacturing in India? What is the total investment in India?
For more than 80 years we have worked closely with our customers to provide them with a range of dependable power solutions to meet their needs; wherever they are based in the world. The unprecedented demand we have seen from the electric power sector in India and the wider Asia Pacific region over the last few years has made our manufacturing investment into Aurangabad, a necessity.
In line with our strategy of manufacturing close to our customers, the new India facility will enable us to better meet the demand for the 4000 Series from the Indian and Asian markets by shortening lead times and helping us forge even closer ties with our valued customers.
The Aurangabad site will cover 120,000 sqm of which 40,000 sqm have been given over to manufacturing. The total investment in the new plant is $150m which will be capable of producing 3,000 engines a year, with the footprint and expansion capability to build 5,000 units in the future. We are also investing in an engine development facility on the site, housing two endurance test beds that will provide the capability for component validation and emissions compliance testing.
Please give a brief of your products available for the Indian market? Are there are any specific products for the Indian market?
Perkins® offers its Indian customers a broad range of engines which are suitable for electrical power generation and which hit all the key power nodes in the 5–2,500 KVA (4– 2,000 KWE) power bands. These power solutions are switchable from 50Hz to 60Hz systems; deliver both standby and prime power and are designed to meet global emissions legislation.
With 80 years of engineering expertise to draw on, Perkins is well placed to partner with a wide variety of OEMs to help them meet their customer needs, whether that be for domestic or export purposes, by delivering a range of dependable and cost-effective power solutions.
How are your products superior compared to the similar products from other brands available in Indian market?
A good example is the 4016 Series, where we listened to our customers and delivered 10 per cent more power from the engine, compared to its predecessor. This was achieved while maintaining the same package size, thereby increasing the power density (kVA/litre).
The existing cooling pack was also maintained as we moved to an air to water charge cooled system which itself, offers greater flexibility as it can be located remotely - ideal if the installation is in a compact environment. Also, given the often onerous conditions in which generator sets operate, one of Perkins objectives was to ensure that peak performance was maintained. These are the criteria which appeal to generator set packagers as they seek to sell their products to customers who are looking for maximum performance with minimum outlay.
In addition to the customer benefits delivered by the 4000 Series, customers can rest assured that the engine is supported by our global product support network of more than 115 distributors operating in over 180 countries.
Perkins is set to begin manufacturing its 4000 Series engines in India. Tell us more.
Perkins 4000 Series manufacturing facility will be located in the Shendra Industrial Area in Aurangabad, Maharashtra; one of the fastest growing cities in the world. Initially the facility will have the capacity to produce around 3,000 engines per year with the capability to increase to 5,000 units in the future.
Construction work is now underway at the site and key appointments have also been made, as we continue to grow our employee base and establish a strong team in Aurangabad. It is envisaged that the workforce, which already numbers around 20 and is set to increase to 60 in early 2013, will grow to approximately 450 when the facility opens.
The 4000 Series engine which will be manufactured in Aurangabad is a proven range of power solutions which have earned a strong reputation for dependability and flexibility by our customers in the electric power sector. We continue to see demand for this, our most powerful engine, from our customers across Asia; with the new facility enabling us to better serve our OEMs with manufacturing facilities based in and around this region.
What is the expected growth that Perkins is looking from India in the coming years?
We expect the electric power sector in India to grow at a rate of 8 to 10 per cent per year over the coming years and are confident that we have the right products available for OEMs to ensure we can all grow our business and revenues over the coming years. Our strategy for growth in India builds on the good work that we are already undertaking in partnership with our valued customers to provide a range of high quality power solutions. We will continue to work closely with our OEMs to help them grow their business and support their long-term export ambitions.
Our initial focus in India in the coming years will be to make our plant fully operational. We will also focus on product support and increasing our offering, relationship building and brand building in the coming years. By 2015, we expect around 50 per cent of the 4000 Series engines manufactured at
Aurangabad will be exported to the South East Asian market. We will also be working hard to develop our local supply chain which we hope will ultimately serve more than our Aurangabad facility.
How do your two distribution partners in India, GMMCO Power and Powerparts, help your business in India?
Perkins global distribution network is a key differentiator for our customers, with more than 115 distribution partners providing excellent product support to OEMs, in over 180 countries around the world.
In India, GMMCO Power and Powerparts Pvt Ltd provide the full range of product support to our OEMs from parts to fault diagnosis and servicing to warranty work. As a business, we work very closely with our distribution partners, who play a vital role in our brand offering, delivering excellent localised service worldwide.
What are the challenges that Perkins has faced in India?
Perkins has been working closely with Indian original equipment manufacturers for more than 30 years and during that time has developed a reputation for providing dependable and cost-effective power solutions. By continuing to work closely with our customers, who are leading companies in the Indian electric power sector, we can tailor our solutions to meet their specific needs, while manufacturing quality products that exceed our customers’ expectations.
There are more new global norms based on energy efficiency and emissions. How is Perkins achieving these new standards for their products?
We offer a broad range of engines for the global electric power sector, from Tier 0 to Tier 4 Interim, to support our customers wherever they are operating in the world, to meet the local emissions regulations. We continue to focus on product development, with our latest engines delivering improved power density and load acceptance, meaning the customer can often downsize while still achieving outputs normally associated with much bigger displacement engines. This leads to reduced operating costs while offering a space saving opportunity during installation.
Tell us in brief about your global business.
Perkins is already a global business with manufacturing facilities located in Wuxi, China; Peterborough and Stafford in the UK; Griffin in Georgia, USA and Curitiba in Brazil. In addition to our manufacturing facilities, we have a global network of more than 115 distributors with over 3,500 branches in over 180 countries around the world, providing product support to the end user, wherever it is required. We work with more than 1,000 original equipment manufacturers around the world not only on electric power applications, but also in the construction, agricultural, material handling and general industry sectors as well.
Do you see India as a base for your exports?
Yes, Perkins expects to export around 50 per cent of the 4000 Series engines we will produce at the Aurangabad facility to customers in the wider Asian market.
How do you see the growth in the electric power sector in India?
There is significant potential for infrastructure development in India which will create a lot of opportunities for reliable power and an increased demand for industrial equipment. The industrial sector is predicted to grow considerably, increasing the market opportunity for our engines in India in the years to come. With an 8 to 10 per cent growth expected in the electric power sector, India will be a key focus for us through both our 4000 Series and full range engine offering.