Mr. Dharangaonkar, how did you come to Harro Höfliger?
Before starting with Harro Höfliger, I worked at Indian branch offices of various Swabian machine manufacturers. In the late 2000s, Harro Höfliger was looking for someone to develop business in India, and a part of the job offer was to complete several months of machine training at the headquarters in Allmersbach im Tal. A great opportunity that I took advantage of.
How were the early days of Harro Höfliger in India?
In 2010, before the branch office was officially established, I moved into an office at the Indian-German Chamber of Commerce in Mumbai. One year later, we opened the branch office under the name of Harro Hoefliger Packaging Systems Pvt. Ltd. and soon after, in 2012, we were able to acquire the first two projects, one inhalation project and one in the field of transdermal administration forms.
Then, after sales service became a topic too?
Yes, when selling the first machine, we were looking for someone to take responsibility for the onsite service. With Rohith Mohanakumar, we gained a real expert in the field. At present, we have our own team of four service employees. If necessary, they can quickly be onsite at the customer’s location. Service as we define it, however, must not be reduced to corrective maintenance and the delivery of spare parts. We also offer user and machine operator training. Our machines are not ready-made, but are precisely customized to the respective product requirements. Our customers therefore want targeted support that we are happy to provide.
Four employees in the Service Department – this sounds like a lack of space at the Chamber of Commerce.
(Dharangaonkar laughs) There space quickly became too tight. Fortunately, we were able to move into a joint office in 2013 with our Excellence United partner Fette Compacting, who already had a strong presence on the Indian market. Due to our joint trade-show appearances, Excellence United is now also well-known in India.
The branch office grew quickly. What was the key to this success?
I think there are many factors. The most important thing is the ability to quench the customers’ thirst for innovation. When a customer wants to launch a new product, we can provide early stage support during technology development. Innovative strength under the “German Engineering” label is in great demand and highly valued. Naturally, being able to offer the right product range for our customers’ specific demands is indispensable, and the relationship with the customer also plays a role. Our commitment and our strength, however, is to help the customer with the development of the appropriate process for their product.
What does the future hold for the branch office in India?
We want to gradually expand our customer network. The Indian economy has been growing steadily for years and the strength of the Indian pharmaceutical and medical sector is commonly known. Of course we want to grow too. We are therefore planning to expand our team in the service as well as in the sales area within the next three years. We supply well-known customers in India and also have orders and projects in Bangladesh. Demand in our core niches inhalation and transdermal administration forms is on the rise. But there is also a growing demand for standardized machine concepts such as capsule filling systems. We need to build on that.
The team of Harro Hoefliger Packaging Systems Pvt. Ltd. in India.
India
is the largest democracy in the world and is considered the economic superpower of the 21st century. The gross domestic product grows between six and seven percent per year and along with it the strong pharmaceutical and medical industry.