WIKA India will play a powerful role in India’s industrial growth process, says its SVP Gaurav

A Mechanical Engineer by training and a management graduate (in Operation and Finance) from IMT, he started off his career in business development and professional sales person skilled in quality management with the knowledge of Six Sigma Black Belt. With career progression, while manufacturing and machines has been his expertise, in his journey from Eicher to GE to Schneider Electric and currently to WIKA Group, he has also transitioned from operational roles to front-ending the businesses and leading the strategy and tactics in his current role of heading WIKA India. While precision manufacturing still remains the core of his expertise, he is now responsible for leadership, growth and business results for WIKA India. His aim is to see WIKA India playing the most prominent part in WIKA Global’s future strategies. For the last 7 years, he has consolidated the WIKA India business under his leadership.

Speaking to Bizz Buzz exclusively, Gaurav Bawa, Senior Vice President, WIKA India, who spearheads the Indian arm of the Germany-based global company, narrates the Indian journey of the company and also explains how the company has been on a steady growth path, aptly emphasising on ‘Think Global, Act Local’ strategy

How and when did the WIKA India journey begin?

WIKA India (WIKA Instruments India Pvt. Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of WIKA Global (WIKA Alexander Wiegand SE & Co. KG, Germany), is a specialist in pressure, temperature, level, flow, & force for critical industrial applications. A global market leader in pressure, temperature and level measurement technology, WIKA India was established in 1997, and it currently operates with German technology, experience and expertise to manufacture quality pressure and temperature measuring instruments serving India’s process industries.

So, what does it do, basically?

WIKA India operates and manufactures with a stringent a quality and environment management system according to requirements of international standard (ISO 9001, ISO 14001). While its facilities use modern machinery, state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities and certified calibration and testing instruments towards ensuring quality control and least risk operations, WIKA India has NABL accreditation and is equipped with high level primary standard calibration equipment for calibrations. WIKA offers a worldwide network with the calibration and service centres and promises to be competent partner, certified by national accreditations bodies according to ISO17025. We are driven by Quality and Precision. Right from the word ‘go’ we have all along remained committed to quality and precision engineering, which is driving WIKA India's success and reputation in the industry.

Tell us something about your parent global company?

WIKA, an independent, family-owned company, is fully backed by private capital and has sound financial management enabling it to develop at its own pace and innovate freely. Nearly 10 per cent of the revenue is invested back in innovation and remains WIKA’s main differentiation. This enables WIKA to secure and claim pole position as a specialist in various global markets that they are present in. As a global and local group, adapted to every economy they are present in, WIKA provides their customers with solutions tailored to their needs—providing advisory services from the design of the solution through to its commissioning.

WIKA Global boasts of test platforms equipped with the latest high-performance equipment, spread over 10000 sq meters surface area exclusively reserved for test operations and 100 + test specialists providing reliability and conformity of products and systems.

Which industry segments do you operate in and who all are your major clients in India?

At present, we are serving the industry segments like Oil and Gas, Chemical and Petrochemical, Food and Pharmaceuticals, Transport and Infrastructure, Power Engineering, Machine and OEMs, WIKA has significant clients like Mahindra Defence, Hero MotoCorp, Toyo Engineering, Tata Power, NTPC, Reliance Power, Sulzer, Hitachi, Cummins, Essar, Shell, Cairn, Tata Chemicals Limited, DuPont, Nestle, Glenmark, Glaxo SmithKline and many others.

How many manufacturing facilities do you have in India at this point in time and where are they located?

At present, we have four plants inclusive of four calibration labs, with after-sales service pan India. WIKA India started off with WIKA Pune and then moved on to WIKA Faridabad, WIKA Chennai and WIKA Ghaziabad. With the aim to “Double the turnover by 2025”, WIKA India is one of the most important markets and manufacturing centers for WIKA Global for its cost efficiency and skilled labour force. WIKA Global has extensive plans to strengthen and expand WIKA India’s operations.

What is your current headcount in India?

WIKA India, at present, has 1200 plus employees across its four plants and the numbers growing steadily with the growth and expansion of our operations in this country.

Where does India stand vis-a-vis the company’s other operational bases in other countries in other parts of the world?

As I mentioned earlier, India happens to be one of our most important and prime markets and manufacturing centres across the world. And that’s not without a reason. We get a skilled labour force, unparalleled in the world. Besides, the Indian operation has huge cost advantages and efficiencies. We have lined up an ambitious plan to double our turnover in India over the next one year. That’s not all. The global company has drawn up an extensive plan to significantly expand and strengthen its Indian operations and eventually turn it into a kind of global hub in the near future. We are extremely particular about the quality of every result that we deliver and we take pride in what WIKA India and its management team has been able to achieve for both India and WIKA Global. Adherence to quality in every sphere of our intervention not only makes our future goals precise but also increases the significance of WIKA’s expansion plans in India.

Our motto and mission is to think global and act local. And that’s exactly what we are doing. We are moving in the right direction to achieve our goal.

WIKA India's growth story assumes great significance in the context of India's economic advancement and the company’s contributions to major industry segments like Oil and Gas, Pharmaceuticals, and Power Engineering. How do you see Indian economy growing in the years to come, because WIKA India’s growth would also depend on that?

I firmly believe in the prediction of World Economic Forum that India will climb up the global positioning on GDP ladder by 2030. What we also envisage is that WIKA India will play a powerful role in the growth process by outgrowing the industrial growth of the country.