—Rob de Bruyn, Managing Director, Bitzer India Pvt Ltd
With a standing of over 75 years, Bitzer is a global name in refrigerant compressors used in cooling equipment. Set up in 2007, Bitzer India is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bitzer and supplies compression products to major original equipment manufacturers.
Rob de Bruyn tells us more on Bitzer’s Indian operations and the growth achieved in recent years. Bruyn observes that thanks to its diverse application areas, Bitzer remains largely unaffected by industrial slowdowns.
Let us begin by understanding the range of compressors supplied by Bitzer to the Indian market.
Bitzer’s management has had the foresight to have the broadest product range and capacity steps of all manufacturers today. Be it reciprocating, screw or scroll technologies, Bitzer has it all, and in both open and semi hermetic configurations. Add to this the possibility to apply all of the common (and not so common) refrigerant gases to our range and we have Bitzer standing alone as the leading compressor technology supplier in our industry.
India is developing a very progressive refrigeration and air conditioning sector as the market and the nation grows, we at Bitzer are very proud to be a part of this progressive industry, supplying all forms of compression technologies to our OEM customers.
How has Bitzer grown in India ever since its inception in 2007?
Bitzer India is a fully-owned subsidiary of Bitzer SE, Germany the largest privately owned manufacturer of reciprocating and screw compressors in the world today. We have offices and company owned and operated ‘Green Point’ service centres at Mumbai and Delhi; Bangalore will be opened by May this year. In addition, we have resident sales managers at Bangalore, Chennai and Kolkata.
Also, Bitzer in India has more than fifty percent market share in the range of products manufactured by us. The Bitzer brand name is synonymous in this country with high quality products offered from the factories at Germany. Since Incorporation back in 2007, Bitzer India has grown by more than 50 per cent year-on-year and we expect our growth to continue along with the cold chain development in India.
Do you have immediate plans of setting up local manufacturing facilities in India?
Bitzer does not have any manufacturing in India at this time. All the products are offered from our production factories at Germany, USA and our integrated systems product assembly plant at Indonesia and Australia. As the demand for our product grows, we will for sure develop our own assembly factory for added value products. In the interim, our Indonesian and Australian added value factories have an abundance of capacity at this moment.
What are Bitzer’s major business drivers in India?
Energy-efficient products, technical and after-sales support are the three key drivers for Bitzer. Bitzer India offers technical, commissioning and after sales support to its customers in India. All the sales and service personnel with the company have an engineering degree and have high levels of competence to offer technically correct solutions to the customers. Bitzer manufactures the most energy efficient products in its class and this makes it possible for our customers to make their products that consume least possible energy, contributing to the country’s drive to reduce its energy and carbon footprint.
Tell us about your pan-India distribution network and your near-term plans of expanding the same.
Bitzer believe strongly that local distribution of its product is very important; our local distributors are supported with Bitzer’s technical and after-sales teams. We have a two-tier distribution network in India with distributors at New Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai heavily stocking to ensure ex-stock availability from their pan India offices. They are complemented by L2 dealers based out of cities like Kochi, Kolkata, Chandigarh etc.
The network will expand as the various regions develop in India over the next years; we see very good possibilities for the east coast distribution development with increasing interest in cold storage warehousing.
Please discuss your repair and maintenance services including the “Green Point” service.
The Green Point service centres have three core responsibilities:
- stock and supply of genuine bitzer spare parts and lubricants
- repairs and services to bitzer compressors in controlled professional conditions and
- technical training, both theory and practical for Bitzer compressor servicing.
Bitzer has supplied more than 30,000 compressors in India till date and these are working with hundreds of OEM’s and thousands of end customers across the country. Many international and Indian original equipment manufacturers like Blue Star, Voltas, CIAT India, Climiveneta, Motherson Group, Panasonic India, Ingersoll Rand, Reynold India, etc use our compressors for their products. The end customers would include Indian Navy, Coast Guard, BPCL, Indian Oil, Reliance Industries, Maruti Suzuki, Taj Hotel, Hotel Leela, Radisson Hotel, Wal-Mart, Birla Retail, Reliance Energy, NTPC, Bharat Electronics, Emami Ltd, Amul, Aurbindo Pharmaceuticals, Glaxo India, Serum India to name a few.
Has Bitzer witnessed any impact of the industrial sector slowdown in recent times?
No, not at all! There is so much to do and so many opportunities within our industry that I don’t see a slowing effect. Bitzer’s product base is so broad that if one sector slows, another will inevitably pickup…..for example, in 2011 the oversupply of building floor space had a negative impact with the OEM air conditioning equipment manufacturers, at the same time, the bus air conditioning sector had the best year in its recent history. Bitzer caters to every sector that is involved in the cooling industry. It has a significant impact on everyday life, even when other industries find difficult times.
Over the recent past, India has witnessed a number of foreign players in the compressor segment. What is your overall view on India as an emerging market?
Bitzer welcomes competition; it is good not only for growth and market development, but also product development. Bitzer prides its success on its technical prowess. Any competition that forces us to critically review our products technically is a friend indeed!
The refrigeration sector is possibly the most exciting sector in India today, with considerable emphasis on OEM production and development of indigenized products, I see a very bright future for companies, engineering and technical staff as well as the end-user market that will inevitably gain from the homegrown ingenuity here in India.
Please discuss the growth plans of Bitzer in India over the next 5-7 years.
Bitzer has very aggressive plans to develop as the cold chain in India develops rapidly; we see that the growth of cold storage warehousing, refrigerated transport, large scale food retailing and the very rapid development of the export food production industry as driving our business potential. Technical skills too will need to be developed as the industry moves towards environmentally aware refrigerant products. Bitzer is a global leader in CO2 systems with particular emphasis on the supermarket sector.
We will dramatically increase our Green Point network over the coming years and add significant numbers of skilled engineers to our Indian organization.