Planning to expand distribution network all over India
Multivista is one of India’s most professionally managed companies in the field of distribution of industrial machinery and components. Started in 1974 as an offset printing facility in Chennai, the group started the industrial product distribution business in 1983. In the last 30 years, Multivista has established its very strong presence for distribution and service of industrial machines and components in southern India, particularly in markets like Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.
Having established itself well in the South, Multivista is looking at pan-India expansion. With its strong footprint in the distribution business, the company is also exploring opportunities in manufacturing, says Mr. Mahesh Jayaraman, Director, Multivista Global Ltd.
Multivista has earned the reputation of a high quality offset printing facility in Chennai. The company expanded into a new state-of-the-art printing facility on the outskirts of Chennai. Currently more than 70 per cent of its printing business comes from exports.
The company’s industrial product distribution business started with the Kirloskar Group, with which it has enjoyed more than three decades of association. In 1983, Multivista was appointed as a distributor for compressor business by the Kirloskar Group. With its initial presence in Tamil Nadu, it steadily expanded its presence across other southern markets, including Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala. Today, Multivista has eight offices and service locations across all the three States.
Apart from compressors, Multivista represents other products within the Kirloskar Group like pumps from Kirloskar Brothers, transmissions, Rockwell for automation systems, Schneider Electric for relays and control panel accessories and Timken for industrial bearings.
Textiles is one of the largest segments in terms of compressor sales for Multivista. Apart from it, the company works in 14 different verticals, including power, steel, leather and pharma.
Multivista-Kirloskar partnership
Kirloskar Pneumatics Company Ltd. (KPCL) started its operations in 1958 with the manufacture of air compressors and pneumatic tools. New product lines were then added, including air-conditioning and refrigeration systems, marine HVACR, process gas systems and hydraulic power transmission machinery. The company has also earned an enviable reputation for its Systems Engineering and Turnkey Project expertise.
Kirloskar is the only company to have the complete range of compressors which covering reciprocating compressors, centrifugal compressors, electric screw compressors, dry screw compressors and portable engine driven compressors. The company offers the complete range from 7 kw to 160 kw power.
In an interview to The Textile Magazine, Mr. Mahesh Jayaraman says: “Air is available free of cost, but compressed air is very expensive, more particularly for textile industry, compressed air is the life line for the entire unit as most of the operations are on pneumatic control. Compressor operating and maintenance was also the 3rd major component of cost for a textile mill. More importantly, the textile industry need oil free air as traces of oil can affect the quality of yarn produced. It was in 2001 that Multivista increased its focus on offering compressed air solution along with Kirloskar Pneumatic for the textile market. We established an office in Coimbatore and spent the initial years understanding the industry and their specific requirements”.
With these requirements in mind, KPCL launched a range of reciprocating compressors specifically suited to the textile industry in three different sizes – 250 cfm, 350 cfm and 500 cfm. Within the next three-five years, Multivista managed to make inroads in the textile industry in the South. Today it has close to 850 machines working in the textile industry. On an average, the company sold about 100 reciprocating compressors in a year and Kirloskar enjoyed 98 per cent marketshare in this market.
Reciprocating compressors need a structured maintenance every 2,000 hours of working. Textile industry is a price sensitive market, hence for ease of maintenance and services, Multivista launched special service kits. These contained a standard set of components and filters which were required to be changed every 2000 hours of running by the compressor. These kits were priced very competitively considering the price sensitive nature of this industry.
This customer-focused approach ensured that close to 100 per cent of the customers serviced their compressors and purchased the components directly from Multivista. The company has built a 20 member-strong service team in Coimbatore to cater to the needs of the customers from the textile industry.
The compressor market has gone through a paradigm shift in terms of technology in the last few years. From reciprocating compressors the market has moved to electric screw compressors which are far more efficient and require less maintenance. Today, the compressor market is dominated by screw compressors with an 85 per cent marketshare.
Multivista has recently sold the first centrifugal compressor to KKP Spinning Mills. For centrifugal compressors, Kirloskar has a tie-up with Cameron Compression of the US for packaging and marketing in India.
“With large-sized units coming up in the textile industry there is an increase in requirement for compressed air in the range of 2500 to 2800 cfm. We see a growing requirement for high power, high efficiency compressors and there is lot of interest from our customers for centrifugal compressors. We see the market shifting towards centrifugal compressors in the future”, says Mr. Jayaraman.
Automation systems
Multivista represents Rockwell Automation in the southern market. Rockwell Automation is the world’s largest company dedicated to industrial automation with its flagship brands Allen-Bradley and Rockwell Software. In the textile industry, Multivista offers OEMs like LMW and Sieger PLCs and automation solutions. The company has also recently started marketing variable frequency drives (VFDs) which can be fitted on all machines, including compressors, for controlling energy cost. With the recent power crisis in the South and increased focus on energy savings, there is a huge demand for investments in VFDs. Textile units are looking to invest in VFDs for all equipments and machines, according to Mr. Jayaraman.
Multivista has now become a one-stop shop for customers. The company offers compressors from Kirloskar fitted with VFD drives from Rockwell. Multivista builds the VFD panels and integrates it with the equipment through its in house technical team.
Energy audits
As mentioned earlier, compressors are high energy consuming equipments. Due to the complexity of the pipelines transporting compressed air across the factory to various machines, there is a lot of leakage resulting in lower efficiency of the compressor. Multivista periodically conducts energy audits at customer locations which help identify leakages. “In the last 5 years we have done close to 660 energy audits across various customer locations, which has helped in significant savings in energy costs for customers”, says Mr. Jayaraman.
Multivista also takes up AMCs with clients for complete maintenance and servicing of compressors guaranteeing 90% + efficiency levels.
Another service provided for large-scale units is an Operate and Maintain model wherein Multivista takes up the complete responsibility of operating and maintaining the compressors through its own team at the customer location. Periodic maintenance, service and leakage testing is done to ensure 90% + efficiency of compressors. The company today has a team of 85 service professionals to cater to the requirements of customers across southern India.
Future plans
With more than three decades of experience in distribution and service and with strong customer relationship across 14 major industry verticals, Multivista is looking to add few more products lines which can complement the existing range. The company is also looking at expanding the geographical coverage, from the South to other parts of the country.
In India, there are only few professionally run distribution companies. This is where Multivista sees an opportunity for future growth. Multivista is the first distribution company to run on SAP. The company has established a full-fledged call center for service and components and has invested on creating a strong infrastructure which will propel its growth in the future.
Multivista is also seriously exploring opportunities in manufacturing. The company has taken a small step in this direction by setting up a pump reconditioning center at Hospet jointly with Kirloskar Brothers. This will be a pump refurbishment facility for Kirloskar and other brand of pumps.
A refurbished pump would cost 60 per cent of the cost of a new pump backed by a one-year warranty. While the refurbished or reconditioned equipment is an established market in Europe and other regions, it is still another big opportunity in India today. This is a natural progression for a company like Multivista with strong footprint in distribution and service.
Being a classic example of a family-owned and professionally-managed business enterprise, Multivista made the right investments and built a strong infrastructure. Although the challenge will be in replicating the success across other geographical markets in the country, the company, backed by a well-qualified and experienced management team, is all set for an interesting growth phase ahead.