Sets ambitious growth targets
Erhardt+ Leimer is a German Multinational that was established in the year 1978 in pre-liberalization India as a joint venture with Indian partnership. Assistant Textile Engineering (ATE) was a service offered by E+L since 1919 in Augsburg Germany, its parent country. Over more than nine decades, E+L which started with manufacture of industrial clocks in 1919 is now the leading manufacturer of Guiding systems for moving webs in the textile, paper, printing, packaging, corrugated cardboard, film, tire, rubber, and non-woven fabrics industries. Mr. S. Rajaram, Managing Director of the company has been with E+L longer than the company itself and they both celebrate 40 years of success on 26th November, 2018. With three years of planning, training and preparatory work, the company commenced commercial production in 1981 with only 10 employees and managed an annual turnover of 30 lacs.
Back in the 1900’s, Indian Industries, especially in textile industry, processing was predominantly manual in nature wherein mill workers sat across each other weaving fabric and in an Industry such, the concept of guiding fabric with machinery was alien. In such times, E+L had the challenge of popularizing their name on the Indian front as well as bringing not only automation but also quality, productivity and time efficiency to the manufacturing process. India soon took fancy to the offerings of E+L, however, the storm was yet to come. With militant union leaders on the rise in the textile industry and the shutting down of 40% factories in the textile hubs of Surat, Ahmedabad and Mumbai, the company faced a major setback in their infancy stage and was exposed to a ‘do or die’ situation. But sailors have rarely ever been tested on still waters and this setback was what created the reputation for E+L that it has maintained for four decades. They decided to diversify instead of leaving the battleground and this resulted in the expansion of the company in the Plastic and Paper verticals. These innovations were welcomed, arising problems were resolved and soon enough E+L was guiding any material on roll-to-roll or roll-to-sheet formats also known as ‘webs’ and the company came to be labelled as experts in Web Control Systems.
USP’s and Longevity
Apart from manufacturing and selling 50 state of the art products with 800 remarkable variants, E+L takes pride in announcing that their technology has no substitutes. Chinese and Indian companies do sell similar technology at cheaper rates but the catch lies in their cost of usage that soon amount to more than the product cost itself. Despite sales of copied and cheaper technology alternatives and of late new entrants of International competitors, the company has maintained its loyal customer base. The spare ware fraction of the total sales by E+L is a mere 11% which is way lesser than the 25% of other companies indicating the reliability of their products.
With six verticals to operate in, it is only fair to have an optimal working space and with E+L, no stone is ever left unturned. A 9000 sq.m Plant area, 2600 sq.m office space, and 1000 sq.m utility space characterize the landscape of E+L with an ongoing expansion project for a warehouse to store their timely finished orders. The humongous unit holds a capacity of manufacturing 50 products with approximately 800 variants. 12% to 13% of the total production accounts for the Export Vertical of the company. Products manufactured solely in India are sent to Germany and China, E+L’s mother and sister companies respectively. SAARC Countries such as Bangladesh and Srilanka are also on E+L’s export radar. South and East African countries are too subject to export and sales activity by E+L.
Success Mantra
For a thriving four decades of market presence, E+L has always used the mantra of ‘Exceptional quality and fair prices supported by World Class Service”. They are strongly opposed to compromising on quality for saving money and this is evident in the anecdote provided by Mr. Rajaram. Ain the eighties, a competitor in textile sector was the market leader with 80% market share in Surat with products of average quality and priced at 50% of E+L. Upon surveying, it was found that the maintenance issues that these cheaper alternatives caused were accepted as necessary evil by the customers who saw no better value for their money. This issue was targeted and remedied by E+L by selling their products at E+L prices but providing a 24×7 after-sales service option by stationing their engineer in a hotel in Surat for 15 years straight!
From 10 employees and a Rs.30 lac annual turnover in 1981 to 260 employees and a 100+ crore turnover in 2017, E+L has established itself in the Indian market. Beginning from its inception, the company has made rich history by gracefully facing all obstacles and skilfully achieving milestones. It has exploited its USP’s to the fullest and expanded their reach both locally and globally. They have high achievements and higher objectives that they aim to accomplish using their evergreen success mantra-
As ELI celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, Mr. Rajaram is confident, that the company has a strong foundation and is resilient enough to meet the challenges of the future which has increasing Volatility, Uncertainty and Complexity.
The Five Year Plan
Mr. Rajaram, one of the firsts and the bests of E+L has big plans for 2023:
Triple Digit Turnover: E+L which clocked a turnover of Rs.100 crores in 2017, has historically a CAGR of 11% in turnover. Based on this benchmark, the company is aiming at generating Rs. 150 crore turnover in five years mainly through organic growth sans acquisitions and with production expansion.
Campus Expansion: With ever increasing market demand, the pressure on E+L’s land resources increase for storage purposes and the company wants to do justice to it by geographical expansion.
E+L has been an environmentally conscious company and has been a zero discharge company from the day it moved into its own premises. Its effluent treatment plant recycles all discharges from canteen, toilets and paint shop and recycled water is used for gardening. All bio degradable wastes are converted to manure using a composting machine. Company also harvests rain water for drinking water purpose and has 2 nos. ground water recharging wells. Company has set up a 50 KW Roof-top Solar Power plant and plans to add another 150 KW Solar power.
Double Exports: The company aims to expand its horizons across the globe and have more than 20% of export contribution to their annual turnover by 2023.
Enhanced Employee Perception: With all the necessary action in the background, E+L also aims at optimizing from the ground level by altering the perceptions of their employees with respect to newer market requirements.
Revolutionizing Delivery Commitments: Having always been on top of their delivery game, E+L seeks to make this a trend wherever they go.