With a team of highly qualified professionals working continuously on new solutions for Concrete Products industry, strong engineering and development is the key to this company’s success. Ramesh Babbar, President & Director, Columbia Machine Engineering (I) Pvt Ltd, is quite upbeat when he says, “No other concrete products equipment supplier can match the versatility, economy and quality of Columbia.” Excerpts of an interview…
Give us an understanding of your company’s performance for 2017-18, and new products introduced.
The last few months have seen excellent growth in the volume of our core business i.e. concrete block making machines when compared to same period last year. We see a buoyant sentiment in market. We would certainly be ending up our year with very positive outlook. We at Columbia have a clear mandate to meet both current and latent needs of the customers under our ‘customer satisfaction’ strategy and with this in view we shall be able to do in most effective manner. We shall be displaying our newly designed and manufactured PLANETARY MIXER in this show. This is a new equipment to our range and is exclusively made in India with technology from our group Company TECHMATIC of Poland.
What are the USPs that have contributed in strengthening and maintaining your machine’s popularity in the market?
Today, with over 15 years of local manufacturing at Vadodara in Gujarat, we offer the most versatile, innovative concrete products equipment in the industry. In India, our existing Concrete Product Machine Model SPM20 provides our customers a plant with an ideal combination of a high technology machine with medium capacity and low investment in pallet and product handling. Its simplicity and ease of installation/ dismantling makes it an ideal solution for project works. Columbia pioneered the first semi-automatic, hydraulically operated block machine over 80 years ago with the unique Columbia Vibration Technology (CVT). No other concrete products equipment supplier can match the versatility, economy and quality of Columbia. Our experienced local sales and service network, along with our easily available local spare parts, moulds and training facilities, provide unmatched world-class support locally. Our team of experienced engineers can design a plant to fit local production needs as well as provide installation support and training for plant personnel.
How is the technology in place to suit Indian requirements considering the fact of extended duty cycles for the machines, and adverse conditions within the country?
Columbia pioneered the first semi-automatic, hydraulically operated block machine over 80 years ago with the unique CVT. Our experienced local sales and service network, along with our easily available local spare parts, moulds and training facilities, provide unmatched world-class support locally.
How do you take care of the affordability aspect in this price sensitive market?
India is still a price sensitive market. Customers do see the value for their money while investing into such machinery. We try to maintain our prices in line with market conditions however, we find our customers are satisfied with the output of the products being produced on our machines and they do get their returns more than their expectations. We understand their needs, create a value proposition, we focus on the benefits not the features, which catches the customer’s eye. We assure a good customer service to build lasting relationship.