Versatile display of refrigerated transport solutions under one roof
The seventh edition of the annual show proved to be versatile and relevant to the latest trends, opportunities and challenges in the cold chain industry.
Keeping up with its promise of bringing together various sectors of cold chain industry, India Cold Chain Show 2018, upped the ante, especially with a successful show of refrigerated transportation. Although the event brought together exhibitors from industries such as horticulture, material-handling, humidifier & dehumidifiers, freezing and chilling systems, air curtains, cold storage doors, compressors, it was the cold chain solutions related to mobility, refrigerated containers & temperature controlling that stood out for the commercial vehicle industry.
Inaugurated by David Rogers, Chairman, Asia Pacific Logistics Federation, Ashish Guru, Vice President, Gujarat Cold Storage Association, Hansmukh Jain Gandhi, President, Madhya Pradesh Cold Storage Association, and Anuj Mathur, COO, Reed Exhibitions Pvt. Ltd., the exhibition, was called open with an interesting Panel Discussion (PD) on ‘Tackling Food Loss and Driving Prots through Efficient Cold Chain’. Moderated by Dr. K. Rathnam, Former MD, AMUL Dairy, the PD was chaired by eminent personalities including Mr. Charles Devlin DCosta, National Sales Head – Temperature Controlled Logistics, DHL SmarTrucking India, Mr. Ashutosh Taparia, Regional Business Head, Bigbasket, Mr. Deepanshu Manchanda, Co-Founder & CEO, Zappfresh, and Mr. Rohit Malhotra, Business Head India, Barcelos.
The panel churned out an insightful dialogue on the need for infrastructure both for mobile and static cold storages. This is because the perishable business in India is fragmented between the top end manufacturers and a very few among the small sectors. “It is primarily due to the affordability issue that the part loads are not organized carefully to enable the system to pick up from different pick up points and deliver at a common market. There are always going to be challenges like multi-products which are different in nature and has their unique requirements and can have cross contamination in nature and the skill to execute such transportation is at a very basic skill level1 in India and we need to find solutions for the same,” observed Mr. DCosta.
India’s fragmented cold chain network and dependence on homegrown methods rather than an MNC due to cost issues effects the quality further. Echoing his sentiments, Mr. Ashutosh Taparia said: “Cross contamination has been a big challenge. Like watermelon got spongy from inside and extremely riped when transported with apples. However, we found out with a horticulture expert that, watermelon, if exposed to ethylene get ripped earlier, as apples are a heavy ethylene producing fruit. So, the solution is to transport them separately.”
The panel also discussed adoption of technology and whether it is used to solve the exiting problem. We need to equip human resource with technology and they can solve most of the issues, whether it is driver training, temperature control at storage points and mobility or better network and connectivity. Technology can help us de-risk the cold chain business a bit, which currently suffers from a high exit ratio amongst the transporters who enters it,” added Mr. DCosta.
The conference, that was attended by over 100 delegates from Mother Dairy Fruits and Vegetables Pvt. Ltd., ITC Food, Licious, Pesca Fresh, Sumeru, Pesca Fresh, Panacea Biotech, Teva Pharmaceuticals, Gubba Pharma Cold Storage, Kanishk International, etc., emphasised on the underlying trends of the cold chain industry and brought together many thoughts, ideas and well-debated solutions on the dais as well as across the 3-day exhibition.
Exceptional solutions on display
Ashok Leyland’s Pullani Motors & Walkes
Ashok Leyland’s Pullani Motors in combination with Walkes displayed the popular LCV Dost with Eutectic freezer. A plug and play product, the reefer box does not take power from the engine. Explaining the USP for Walkes product, Mr. Vivek Pullani, CEO, Pullani Motors, explained: “The freezer achieves the temperature till -45 degrees, that nobody in the market is providing. It can be charged within 6-7 hours and run upto 12 hours and the temperature variation is hardly 3 degrees Celsius by the end of the 12th hour. It is specially designed and developed for places where power shutdown / loadshedding is for longer duration. The eutectic solution has a property to hold the temperature for longer duration which results in longer temperature holding time of the freezers.”
It is understandable that a customer buying a vehicle from a dealer with the refrigerated box fitted in can benefit from the one invoice of the purchase. “Not only just the customer saves around 10 per cent on his combined purchase but also can leverage service and maintenance from a single window, instead of dealing with the AC manufacturer, reefer box manufacturer and a host of other.”
HLM India
HLM India Pvt. Ltd., who seems to be getting away from action in the industry for a few months, made its presence felt at the 7th edition of the India Cold Chain Show. Headed by a new Director, but a veteran in the manufacturing industry with TSI, in the form of Mr. Manoj Varghese. HLM a 50:50 joint venture between HLM Holland BV and Transport Solutions of India (TSI), has been pioneering the fabrication of reefer containers in the Indian market and setting new standards with their use of GRP reefer boxes since 2009.
Ask Mr. Varghese about his way to reiterate the credibility and quality of HLM India, to the old and new customers in the industry, he said: “The market is moving fast towards buying a fully built reefer vehicles from the OEMs. With GST rates making the individual chassis purchase higher, customers want one single invoice while they purchase a vehicle for a specific application. We already are working with Mahindra Truck and Bus Division and Tata Motors in Pune and are talks with Eicher and Daimler. It will be a good collaboration for us since we already have good relationships with the OEMs and our quality can win us customers.”
With electronic content going up in a vehicle and reefer box, HLM is well aware of the solutions to offer with the manufacturing of a reefer box. “Earlier the industry just had GPS tracking system, today even temperature monitoring is becoming standard. We are flexible to work with customer’s choice and can embed the best required technology chosen by the client.”
Ask him on the current capacity and HLM’s manufacturing strength, Mr. Varghese added: “We have a capacity of 120 boxes per month in two shifts and around 1,500 boxes per annum. Apart from the regular demand from ambient to zero degrees, we are doing something to improve the holding time of the temperature. If an empty container takes 2.5 hrs to reach -25 degrees from the ambient temperature, it takes 30 minutes to drop to -22. We are trying to do something which will increase that holding time and save diesel for the customer in the process.”
Lamilux
One of the regular participants at the show, Lamilux India Pvt. Ltd. continued its active efforts to promote Glass reinforced plastic (GRP) as the preferred material for building reefer containers and to create awareness of the same. The company used the platform to interact with its existing customers and also to scout for potential ones.
Says Mr. Oliver Liebsch, Managing Director, Lamilux India: “We have had a very good response here at this show. For us, the most important thing is to keep our existing customers happy and especially our Partner Program Clients. Meanwhile, we are also looking for new customers and opportunities. It is very important for us to be present at such shows every year to meet our existing customers and build their confidence; we are walking with them side by side in their growth journey. We will continue to focus on our regular materials and feel it might take some more time for the market to get ready for new products from our global portfolio. That said, we also keep all our customers equipped with the latest products and updated on our upcoming new launches.”
Lamilux has grown steadily ever since entering the Indian market a decade ago. The company is happy with the progress it has made and is looking to play a bigger role in the future of India’s cold chain industry. Mr. Liebsch explains: “We are seeing more and more reefer vehicles built using GRP as seen even here at the show.
Lamilux has been present in the Indian market for more than a decade and we are very happy with the change we have brought about with the help of our customers who are the ambassadors of GRP in the country. We see huge potential in the market as India has to gear up to minimize the food wastage due to lack of reefer trucks and cold storages; considering the size of the country, both geographically and in terms of population, we need lot many more good reefer trucks. While truck bodies will remain our primary focus always, we will also look at providing solutions to other applications within the cold chain in future.”
Sical Logistics
Sical Logistics, which caters to food and pharma, QSRs, FMCG, frozen processed food with its fleet of 320 vehicles, operating PAN India, connected with visitors by showcasing their expertise in secondary distribution.
Mr. Rajesh Patil, Sr. Manager – BD, Cold Chain Division, Sical Logistics Ltd., shared: “We cater to secondary distribution as well as primary distribution especially with the small commercial vehicles by reaching on time, tracking temperatures in transit and maintaining the quality of the goods being transported within cities. We have got quite a few good leads given our proficient brand image and we wish to continue our brand domain and expertise to attract more business.”
Geotracker
Geotracker, one of the well-known companies in tracking solutions, has been growing about 15 per cent year-on-year for the past two years on back of their robust software platform and ace field engineers. Said Mr. Ashwini Dubey, Director – Strategic Initiatives: “Our software now is at the level that it is one of the best in the countries. It is supremely backed by our on-field support. There are transporters who face challenges on road with a reefer temperature not working on road, hence apart from software developments we have sincerely invested in the best of field engineers who are top notch in terms of quality and turnaround time. This is what we have gotten a good grasp over and have been our pillar of strength.”
Geotrackers is one of the earliest companies to have invested not only in web-based tracking solutions but also with apps. Apart from cold chain the company also offers solutions for employee tracking, an S3 app running in Mumbai on the lines of Ola and Uber. “We provide the software parts and have good partnerships with hardware providers. We also have good presence in cash vans, industrial gases and are trying to enter into oil and gas. Our focus on software programmes help us achieve the customization required for such varied industries,” he asserted.
With exhibitors as well as visitors from various verticals like FMCG, dairy, retail, seafood, frozen food, fruits & vegetables, pharma, bio tech, health care, flocked the India Cold Chain Show 2018, it became highly relevant in tapping latest trends, opportunities and challenges across the refrigerated industry, especially towards the cold-chain logistics industry.
Randhawa Motors
Dealers of Mahindra Truck and Bus, Randhawa Motors, displayed the company’s Furio ICV range. When ask him about their communication at the show, Mr. G.P. Singh Randhawa said: “We have expertise of building cold chain boxes and since the industry is also demanding a lot of ICVs and LCVs, which will take up the most of the load ferrying at the intercity levels, displaying a refrigerated ICV from the Mahindra stable made a good business sense. Since we are a dealer and manufacturer, we can give the solution with single invoice and provide fully-built vehicles under one roof.”
Cold Box India
Cold Box India, which participated for the first time displayed their portable active cooling boxes. Mr. Ashutosh G, Head of Operations, said: “Ours is a battery-operated system, which we call active pallet boxes. Generally, there are passive boxes taking power from the engine, but ours are called active as the compressors and cooling systems are driven by battery which requires a 5Amps charging. It consumes a very low energy of 8-10 volts and it goes on a zero degree and remain stable for almost 7-8 days. It can go even -20 degrees while running for 3 days.”
Cold Box, certainly gives a lot of flexibility, especially to someone who have less products and require LCV/ICV to transfer multi temperature sensitive items, on a same vehicle. It can be dropped on different locations to also be used as a portable storage. Dry cargo tuck operators who want to convert suddenly into reefer containers can use these boxes and get an understanding of the market. Added Mr. Ashustosh: “Initially ours will be a rent out model as the product is manufactured in USA and bringing here would add further cost so we will give it to lease for long terms and are working out contract models soon for the interested customers.”
Trackster Technologies
Trackster Technologies, participating for the second straight year since 2017, was very happy with the overall targeted visitors coming well aware of what their solutions could offer.
“People are now more receptive and acknowledge the profitability that they can get using our tracking solutions. Customers are even appreciating our technology compared to the low-cost solutions that they might have bought of other companies which didn’t give them the desired results. In last one year we have worked on 2,000 vehicles and that speak of our credibility,” beamed Mr. Sudhir Bakshi, CEO, Trackster Technologies. Apart from temperature control, fuel monitoring, people are looking for additional features like ‘switching on the AC unit and controlling it from a remote location’.