Powerful engine Kirloskar Oil Engines

POWERFUL ENGINE

Key strategic changes over the past two years have seen Kirloskar Oil Engines Ltd further boost its customer-focused products and services. Emma-Jane Batey spoke to vice-president and business head Sanjeev Nimkar to learn more.

Part of the Indian engineering products giant Kirloskar Group, Kirloskar Oil Engines Ltd (KOEL) was founded in 1946 in India. A flagship company of the group, KOEL has four state-of-the-art manufacturing units in India that have been carefully developed and maintained to offer world-class products and services. KOEL operates offices in Dubai, South Africa and Kenya, with sales representatives throughout the Middle East and Africa.

As the acknowledged Indian market leader in the manufacture of diesel engines for industry, agricultural engines and power generating sets, KOEL offers a broad range of products to a number of active markets. Vice-president and business head Sanjeev Nimkar spoke to Industry Europe to give an overview of the company and explain its goals for the future: “We specialise in the manufacture of both air-cooled and liquid-cooled diesel engines and power generating sets across a wide range of power outputs. All our power solutions are customised to suit a wide range of applications in both standby and prime power requirements. KOEL generating sets are available in both open and sound-proof environmentally-friendly canopies and these sets adhere to highest emission norms required in the US & Europe as well ”

Ideal choice

The major markets served by KOEL include service industries such as telecoms and IT/ES, shopping malls and hospitals, and infrastructure projects such as roads, bridges and high-rise buildings. KOEL products are well established in industries such as engineering, FMCG and the automotive sector as well as defence requirements in the air force, the army and the navy. Mr Nimkar added, “Kirloskar products are famous for being very robust and cost competitive, making them the ideal choice for a huge variety of projects and applications, particularly those that require long-term durability and reliability. The fact that our engines are made to withstand a great deal of Indian situations like rugged terrains and high temperature fluctuations makes them a valued choice.”

Well known for its durability, the KOEL product range is also famously good value for money. Mr Nimkar continued, “Kirloskar is appreciated for offering very robust products at a good price point. It’s a desirable blend of high value for money with highly reliable performance.”

It is this desirable blend, coupled with the high tolerance in extreme operating conditions, that is part of KOEL’s growth strategy for the future. Already active across the Middle East and Africa, KOEL plans to aggressively grow more in these regions as well as Europe and the US. Mr Nimkar said, “Our strategy is to be aggressive in India and beyond; we currently enjoy around 15 per cent of our activities outside India but we expect to grow to by at least 25 per cent within the next five to seven years. The strategic changes in our management and our operations over the past two years have focused on the new vision: by 2025 Kirloskar oil engines will touch the world. Our strategic approach has resulted in a very positive, ambitious theme across the company and our outlook is far more global now; we are developing rapidly across Africa, where we are already strong, and are developing our target markets in Europe and the US.”

Another improvement at Kirloskar has seen it blast its previous delivery times from four to six weeks to just seven days. Having realigned its whole supply chain, KOEL is now promising its customers that delivery of its high performance, high quality, affordable engines will be in just one week, dramatically improving its customer service right from the first contact with KOEL through to the delivery and after sales of 24 X 7.

Top standards

Innovation and development are integral to KOEL’s ongoing success. Mr Nimkar explained, “We are determined to maintain our position as the market leader in power generation, industrial engines and agricultural engines. We are further augmenting our in-house R&D and engineering facilities to ensure that we stay at the top of our game by only developing and producing engines that meet the world’s highest quality standards. All our facilities are ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certified, as well as meeting the ISO standards for IT and OHSAS. All our products are perfectly suited to the European and US markets as they are competitive and meet tight emissions norms.”

Environmental responsibility and understanding is very important for Kirloskar’s expected growth, both in its domestic and nearby markets and across Europe and the US. Mr Nimkar added, “The evaluating agency in the Netherlands has awarded us an A+ rating for green initiatives and top class reporting on sustainability, and we have also been given a GreenCo Gold award from the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) in 2015.” n