Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd., India’s leading utility vehicle and tractor manufacturer, announced its entry into the Construction Equipment business with the launch of the Mahindra EarthMaster Backhoe Loader during early 2011. The company since then has been actively promoting backhoe loader / loader for varied applications and within a short time established its equipment as one of the preferred choices. Mr. Sachin Nijhawan, Vice President and Business Head, shares the product special features and marketing efforts in the journey.
Can you brief the major equipment and models thereof in your product program? Comment on the special features, USPs and service support provided to keep the downtime of the machines to the minimum.
Innovation is order of the day and we believe to provide the products and services which help the industry to rise. Mahindra Construction Equipment has always strived for giving the best to its customers. It is for the same reason that we came up with the backhoe loaders after 4 years of research and over 20,000 hours of machine testing which offers best-in-class fuel efficiency (4.5* litres per hour).
In fact, when we entered the Construction Equipment industry with our backhoe loader – Mahindra EarthMaster, it had many first. We were the leader to provide telematics for remote care and joystick for ease of operation in the traditional backhoe loader segment. With launch of new telematics system, DigiSense by Mahindra Group, our equipment would soon be loaded with advanced technology to track performance on real-time.
Further, with better technology and design enhancements, our equipment is able to lower lubricant refilling requirement with extended service intervals, thus reducing the overall maintenance cost and improving total cost of ownership.
TCO becomes critical for the production machines. In this regard, how do you find your machines meeting this requirement? Indicate also the plans to expand your operational areas.
Mahindra and Mahindra’s strong R&D department of over 2000 engineers and with its decades of experience in engineering products that last long and provide great value, has made us attain a feat of developing a truly Made in India backhoe loader without any overseas collaboration. Mahindra & Mahindra’s engineers have studied all the applications of construction machinery in India and designed Mahindra EarthMaster to meet the toughest duty needs of Indian contractors. This has been duly backed by not only the state-of-the-art manufacturing facility and processes, but also the rigorous testing schedule.
Mahindra Construction Equipment has always strived for giving the best to its customers as one of the prominent player in Indian Construction Equipment segment. We believe in providing disruptive products and services which would not only be category creating but enable our customers to break free from traditional equipment. To capitalize on the India growth story and being serious player in the business, we would be soon introducing a slew of innovative products not only in earthmoving category but in other segments of construction equipment sector. We would offer enhanced value proposition and live by our philosophy of ensuring customer delight, which has always been our core as Mahindra Group.
Backhoe Loaders would continue to remain the pivot of this growth of Indian Construction Equipment sector which has registered year on year robust growth of 44% in H-1 and would continue to grow in coming years. We have also grown in line with the market and expect to outperform the industry in H-2.
Tell us about the service support provided to keep the downtime of the production machines to the minimum.
At Mahindra, we believe in providing value add to customers right from product development by utilizing the best technology and hence our EarthMaster is a truly personalized machine with new age digital cluster that helps the operator to identify and trouble shoot problem by reading messages and hearing warnings in 6 different languages. If we talk about pre-sales services, then Mahindra allows customers to take the look and feel our equipment through dedicated demonstrations in their locality. Through this, customers and the operators are able to operate the machine and understand its various attributes. For post-sales services, Mahindra offers few days’ dedicated training for operators, in which operators are personally trained on various features of the machines by professional trainers. The customers are also entitled for 1 year unlimited hours of warranty. With all these and much more, our offers ensure peace of mind to the customers.
Rental and used equipment market share in the segment is very low; how do you see this evolving over a period of time? Comment on the supply of refurbished equipment and buy back/exchange schemes to customers.
Rental and used equipment market share in the segment would gradually increase over a period of time. In order to tap the potential in the market, Mahindra already has a rental vertical as part of the Construction Equipment business. There is always a possibility of offering buy back/exchange new equipment purchased which are taken up in certain select markets.
How do you see the market evolve over the next 4 years? Brief us your focus areas for business expansion, growth drivers and export initiatives and plans for Vision 2020.
Investment in infrastructure, utilities, ports, roads & highways are the main growth drivers for Construction Equipment Industry. Total spend on Infrastructure in 12th Five-Year Plan (2012-17) is estimated 10 per cent of GDP, up from 7.6 per cent during the previous Plan (2007-2012). This increased spend on infrastructure would drive the growth in Construction Equipment sales. The trend is already evident as Indian CE market has been on a strong recovery track after an ebb of 4 years and is slated to increase by 50% to around 75000 units by 2019.
To cater to rapidly growing market of North-East, we have two full range dealership with sales/service/spares facility in the geography. With showroom and state-of-the-art workshop facilities, the dealerships sell the complete range of Mahindra construction equipment’s which are tailor-made to suit requirement of hilly regions of North-East. Along with the sales and service facilities, the dealership also provides facilities such as easy finance, exchange facility, quick repair amongst others. With a focus on customer satisfaction and customer delight, these full range dealerships have a dedicated sales team and will provide the best in class services to the customers of North-East.
Being part of Mahindra Group, we harness the synergy within the group to cater to global market needs. India being the flag bearer of the developing world, we have inherent understanding of the demands of other developing markets. We have a comprehensive plan to target selected geographies of the world which have synergy with us. Mahindra Construction Equipment is already present in SAARC nations. Also, we have expanded our reach in African and Middle Eastern countries.