Dormer Tools India Pvt. Ltd., a subsidiary of one of the world’s foremost producers of solid carbide and high-speed steel rotary cutting tools, Dormer Tools, offers products under two brands – Dormer and Pramet – in the Indian market. The company, which has its core product programme covering drilling, tapping, milling, turning, parting & grooving and threading tools, provides a one-stop solution for the automotive industry, apart from catering to the needs of a number of other industries.
We spoke to Mr. Gautam K. Ahuja, Managing Director, Dormer Tools India Pvt. Ltd., to get details about the company’s overall performance over the last few years, market expansion and growth plans.
Excerpts:
How has business been for Dormer Pramet India in 2017? What about the key achievements and highlights during the year?
Dormer Pramet India has closed the year 2017 on a high note achieving the highest-ever monthly sales in December. We are growing at a CAGR of more than 30%. In spite of the disruptions caused by the demonetization and GST, we have continued our growth momentum to gain market share. It is our endeavour to give maximum benefits to customers by giving them quality products at reasonable prices and to help them increase productivity and reduce their tooling cost.
How are your different brands doing in the market?
Dormet Pramet is a full line cutting tool supplier and that’s what makes us unique. We start from basic HSS drills for the typical applications in MRO or general machining industries and go across a lot of cutting tools like round tools, taps, endmills and solid carbide. Also, we have an insert range for applications like turning, milling and drilling to serve specific industries. Thus, Dormer is a round tools specialist, while Pramet is the Go To brand for indexable tools. Both the brands are doing well in the Indian market. We are one of the fastest growing cutting tool companies in India. We have had two new product launches every year, which makes our portfolio very interesting for customers.
In our interaction three years ago, you had mentioned that the commercial vehicle industry has a lot of potential for your business. How important is the CV space for your business at present and what does the future hold?
Commercial vehicles use the maximum amount of tooling in the automotive sector. Hence our growth is partly dependent on the growth of this sector. The CV vendors are our big customers, and we supply a lot of products to them. In future also the CV segment will be our important customers. However, with the advent of electric vehicles (EVs), there will be a shift towards hybrid CVs. This will increase tool consumption because hybrid cars have more components than the petrol and diesel cars.
How strong is your present network of dealers? What initiatives have you taken in the aftermarket sector over the last 2-3 years?
We have a strong team of about 70 dealers in India, servicing customers in most of the industrial towns. Strong dealership is the key to our success, and we take every care while appointing dealers. We offer a lot of training for them, right from basic products to understanding our system software. The aftermarket is our added strength. Though there is a lot of hard work involved, we have trained our manpower to serve the customers to the extent possible. We do a lot of value selling too by conducting trials at the customer’s shop floor and increasing productivity and reducing tool costs. We also want to give tangible benefits to customers to influence them to prefer our products.
In 2014, you had indicated about tripling your turnover over 3-4 years. Are you on track to achieve the same?
We started operations in India in 2013, and it has been an interesting journey of over four years, full of challenges and learnings, while we have grown much faster than the industry. In the last five years, we have grown the sales of Dormer Pramet by five times, and this is as per our plan. Apart from maintaining our growth, we try to keep the other parameters like our costs and working capital under control, so that we run efficiently.
What are your expectations in the new year? What are Dormer Tools’ targets and growth plans for the year?
The Government has done quite a lot with its ‘Make in India’ initiative. This has brought a lot of investment and manufacturing into India, creating a lot of jobs. The GDP is expected to grow above 7%, while the automotive industry has already grown by 9.2% in 2017 and should continue to do well. The stock market is at an all-time high. This is an indicator of economic growth in the coming months. Secondly, with the general elections scheduled in 2019, the Government should announce some more sops to further enhance the ‘feel good’ factor. Thus, all indications are there that 2018 should be good for the Indian economy and most of the manufacturing firms should do well.
Dormer Pramet India should grow at twice the pace of the industry, and we have quite aggressive plans to achieve that. We are one of the fastest growing companies in the cutting tools industry, and in the next few years we should be one of the major brands that customers expect as a reliable partner.