Electromech plant soon in Chennai

Meet Mr. Tushar Mendele, the young and dynamic Managing Director of the Pune-based Electromech, a leading manufacturer of industrial cranes and customized material handling solutions. He took over in 2000 when Electromech was doing a turnover of Rs. 3.5 crores. In 10 years, he has transformed it into a Rs. 160 crore company having sold over 600 cranes last year.

However, Mr. Tushar is not contented with his achievement. His target is to make Electromech a Rs. 1,000-crore company in the next five years so as to become the largest crane manufacturer in India both in terms of value and volume. This, he says, is achievable given the growth opportunities in the Indian market.

According to him, the industry size in India for cranes is about 7,000 to 10,000 units per annum, and the whole industry remains highly fragmented and unorganised. But all that is set to change with the entry of multinational companies and Indian companies adopting best global practices. “Indian manufacturers are getting world class, and we see a lot of companies embracing high technology products. They want to emulate the best practices and establish world class facilities in India”, he says.

Over the last decade, Electromech has upgraded its product offerings, got newer specifications and tied up with global majors to offer the best technology products in the Indian market. The company has partnered with Abus of Germany for technology and components and has integrated them into its own systems. “Partnering with Abus opened up a lot of avenues and our product range also got upgraded”, Mr. Tushar adds.

Parallely, Electromech is expanding its capacity and has just completed a major expansion in its existing facility in Pune from 1,500 to 2,000 cranes per annum. Electromech is also setting up a new plant in Chennai to cater to customers in the South. It has already invested Rs. 25 crores on the expansion of the Pune facility and another Rs. 20 crores on its new Chennai facility.

Electromech is quite bullish on export growth prospects. The company started an office in Dubai in 2005, from there it is catering to the Middle East and African markets. Currently 15 per cent of the business comes from exports, and this bound to increase in the future.

Electromech caters to many industry verticals, the automotive sector alone contributing close to 25-30 per cent of its turnover. Some of the major customers in the automotive space include Tata Motors, Mahindra, Mercedes, Volvo and TACO Group, as well as several component manufacturing units.