JuttaHumbert, MD, Nord Drivesystems on the company’s increasing its footprint in India | How important a role does the Indian market play for Nord?
The subcontinent is one of the most important regions for our group. India is a huge market with dynamic developments in many industry sectors. And every vibrant sector depends on high-performance, reliable, energy efficient electric drives for a wide range of applications. In some segments, particularly in the steel industry, Nord has already become a universally recognised brand and a beacon for quality made in Germany. Unlike most of the German subsidiaries in India, especially in the field of automation, you decided early on to open a world-class facility here.
What was the reason behind this strategy?
We opened a 4,000 m² factory in Pune in 2007, after we had established a sales branch in 2005. Our Pune plant has enabled us to provide quicker and more comprehensive customer service in Maharashtra and all over the subcontinent. Our customers in India can rely on our strong team of local specialists who serve all states and territories and neighbouring countries giving support from early planning stages all the way through to delivery, assembly and regular maintenance operations. Having our own production facility here also gives us total control over the top quality of the parts and systems customers have come to expect from us. And we are much more flexible than drive suppliers without such a base in India. You launched energy efficient motors even before there was a trend of ‘going green’.
Are you making any further developments in this range now?
Indeed we are. Since our first introduction of high-efficiency motors in 1997 we have continuously extended and improved our range of motors. Today, we can offer high quality asynchronous and synchronous motors that meet all crucial standards across the world. Heavily export-oriented partners will find that particularly useful – we can provide solutions that are globally suitable, they do not have to adapt drives for each national market. Moreover, with Nord drives, the physical dimensions will often remain more or less the same if you switch to a more efficient geared motor, so we ensure that our customers have minimal extra engineering effort. Even for the super premium standard (IEC Class 4), which is currently only defined in an IEC draft, Nord systems are already available.
What are your plans to drive the market in 2015?
We want to continue to grow together with our customers and extend our service and support network. With the degree of automation in many industries on the rise, the demand for drive equipment keeps shifting from components to full-scale solutions. Our modular range of products enables us to configure suitable drive systems even for challenging applications that require complex functions and advanced features. On top of that, we are committed to making our solutions ever more efficient. Quality, of course, will remain our greatest strength in a competitive market.