We have ambitious growth plans in India : Dormer Pramet
Q. Could you enlighten us on your presence in India?
Dormer Pramet is one of the brands in the Sandvik Group, basically dealing with metal cutting. We have been in India for a long time, but after 2020, we acquired Miranda Tools as a company and now we also have a strong foothold in the Indian market with the plant. Now the Miranda brand and the Dormer Pramet are working together with the correct synergy.
Q. Please give some insights into your Indian operations?
In India, we are having a full-fledged team of our sales and application colleagues. Apart from that, we also have a plant in Ankleshwar, where we are producing more than 15 million HSS products.
Q. Which was the year when you acquired Miranda Tools? And how has it bolstered your presence in the Indian market?
Yes, we acquired Miranda Tools in December 2020. Miranda is a very old legacy brand in India. It has a heritage of more than 75 years.
Combining that with Dormer Pramet, which has even an older heritage of more than 100 years, has given a very strong foothold to Dormer Pramet in the Indian market. It gives us the possibility to make, sell, ‘make in India’ products in India. And also we have very big plans for Miranda as the capacity which we have got from it, will enable us to put more Dormer Pramet products made in India in the globe.
Q. And what are the key achievements of yours after the acquisition?
The key achievement for Dormer Pramet and specifically for our plant in India is that we are in the phase of upgrading it in terms of capability and capacities. We have also done a lot of things which are more from a sustainable point of view, like we have the first vacuum furnace in the manufacturing industry in HSS in India. No other HSS manufacturer in India has a vacuum heating furnace. So that is what one of the first things which we have done. We have now implemented our safety protocols like the fire systems, evacuators and others to build this plant to the global standards.
Q. What are the growth strategies you are planning?
As you know, India is the silver lining in the overall world from a growth perspective. We are the highest GDP growth country in the world and Dormer Pramet also has very ambitious plans for India. We are already growing phenomenally and we look forward in the short term and in the long term also to grow in India. And with Miranda being here, we will also export to the world from India.
Q. I understand there have been some changes, of late, in the brand identity. Can you explain that?
It was in last October that Dormer Pramet refreshed its brand identity to become more accessible, more digital and we also changed our current palette so that we become more modernized in terms of how we appear on the net, how we are able to interact with the new generation and we have also refreshed our brand promise from ‘Simply reliable’ to ‘Certainty at every turn’ which basically gives a more bigger picture of what we want to deliver to the customer. And we have also changed our mission from ‘We care for manufacturing’ to ‘We care for manufacturing community’ so that we become more inclusive and we talk about giving more to the society not only from the perspective of cutting tools, but also a little bit about our contribution to the ‘Make in India’ mission. With our acquisition of Miranda, we have also got a plant in Ankleshwar in Gujarat which gives us a very strong foothold in ‘Make in India’ because that plant has around 15 million production capacity of HSS products. Like I said earlier, we will be increasing our capability and capacity in the coming years as we integrate it within the Dormer Pramet-Sandvik world and in the future we will not only ‘Make in India’ for India but also for the world.
Q. We did not touch upon the technology trends in the cutting tools world. Can you do that?
Good cutting tools have to churn out parts faster, parts that are more precise. The life cycle of these products is slowing down; so that means new product development needs to be faster. From the design perspective a lot many things are happening – new grades of materials, new geometries, new coatings. Similarly in HSS and round tools also we are experimenting with new geometries, and high performance coatings.
You also asked about the trends in technology. On one hand, the cutting tools have to chisel out parts which are precise and faster enough. On the other, 3D printing is being increasingly used in place of subtractive manufacturing. In the days to come, AI will have a tremendous impact on cutting tool production. From that perspective, we are already ready. We have a lot of new products in the anvil. In our plant we recently introduced AI for detecting defects in our inserts.
Q. All this means there should also be some impetus on training – Right?
Yes of course. At Dormer Pramet we are known for our knowledge-sharing. We have regular training programs for our people, distributors and customers at large. If you go to our website, you will find a lot of these programs and certificate courses designed to impart training in metal cutting to special groups and aspirants.
