An Enduring Growth Story

If you can do business in India, you can do it anywhere. This is a statement that often surfaces especially at international cleaning industry forums. There are a few who have made an instant hit on entering India, some have taken a few years and many others who are still holding hope or have gone back to return later. The ‘enduring growth’ story of IPC India and the sustainability of its business model are unique in some ways in the context of the growth story of Indian economy. Clean India Journal brings to you the journey so far…

The growth of the Indian cleaning industry and its players have been to a large extent impacted by the growth of the economy which has been scaling high since the 90s. It is during this time, IPC (Integrated Professional Cleaning) Italy, one of the largest OEM of cleaning machines and tools, forayed into the Indian market in a joint venture with Western Floor Pvt Ltd. With a spread of global commercial network in over 120 countries and an OEM model not just for providing machines & tools but also solutions, IPC India’s penetration has been progressive.

Like in most developing economies, the need for cleaning solutions became much pronounced in the 2000s with growing infrastructure, investor confidence, international influx, retail-commercial-residential space development and so on. Requirement for specific cleaning solutions in each of these areas then surfaced.

With a business reach across matured and developing markets of North and Latin America, Europe, Africa, the Middle East and especially India and Turkey – catering to different continents by manufacturing in five different countries, and its wide distribution network operating in highly heterogeneous conditions around the world – over a period of 63 years, IPC was able to offer India a ‘time & terrain’ tested formula for cleaning.

IPC India in 2011 turned into a wholly owned subsidiary of IPC Italy. In 2014, the change in guard at the Italian headquarters with Federico D’Angelis taking over as Managing Director, changed the focus on the Indian operations too. Closely followed by change of guard in IPC India.

“With renewed focus on the Indian subsidiary and all eyes on its progress, a new growth roadmap was drawn in India to keep pace with the growth of the Indian economy and align IPC’s worldwide strategy to suit Indian dynamics,” says Tony Chazhoor, MD, IPC India.

Operational Excellence

“Exploring different market spaces to widen reach and be present in all corners of India to enhance customer experience became a priority. A strategy was implemented to attain flexibility, a passive aggression in the market place and responsiveness of scaling measures. This made the difference,” he explained.

The strategy also required a team of specialised trained sales and service professionals. “Maintenance and service of products and catering to customers’ after-sales & service requirements, hence the measures were introduced to address this critical aspect.

Training the new team and upskilling the existing ones in soft and hard skills required and in order to enable them to efficiently carry out their duties a training academy was set up and a dedicated trainer hired, to train not only the IPC team but also the dealers and the end customers.”

“Over the years, the India business has been fully aligned with the global organization and has grown to a reasonable size and reach. Starting with two branches in 2015, IPC India has 12 now to network across all regions. This is further strengthened by multiple dealers in various States. Four warehouses across the country now ensure timely delivery of products to customers.

In 2017, the IPC Group as a whole was acquired by Tennant Company (NYSE: TNC), another world leader in the designing, manufacturing and marketing of cleaning solutions, thus increasing the range and professional solutions being offered to the customers.

Product differentiator

“Constant commitment to technological research and product innovation, collaboration with valuable strategic partners, a near-complete range of product lines starting from manual tools to high end ride-on sweepers covering all categories such as scrubbers, ride-on scrubber driers, high-pressure cold & hot water washers, window cleaning systems, industrial and professional vacuum range with high-reach vacuums and façade cleaning machines etc. helped build customer confidence in the IPC brand.”

IPC group has over 1000 specialists dedicated to developing newer and better machines and focussing on specific solutions for tangible productivity benefits. The newer, efficient and robust machines meet newer levels of energy and water savings, and recycling of materials. “The innovativeness and efficiency in performance enables in providing such solutions which sets us apart from the competition.”

“A single machine performing various tasks such as upholstery cleaning with the capability to dry and also wet vacuum; or the CT 15R that can be used to clean hard floors and can be switched to clean carpets enhances customer experience. A safe façade cleaning solution that can clean facades or vertical surfaces up to 16 meters high from the ground does away with the risks associated with climbing heights. The ‘SkyVac’ with carbon fibre technology can vacuum internal and external heights of up to 12 metres and is operated from the ground.” In each category, the versatile products range offers two to three variants with optimization of economy and mechanization derivatives.

Today, IPC India customers are spread across sectors from industries like food processing and metal working to service industries like IT/ITES, BPO and KPO with the largest contributor being the FM sector. “This is a highly challenging and price-conscious segment, which constitutes 50% of the company revenue. Consequently, IPC India has been clocking high double-digit growth for the last four years.”

“Any leading manufacturing or service-oriented company looks to ensure a sustainable model of growth by focusing on developing business models based on change and innovation, in order to stay connected to existing customers and augment its portfolio of products sold to them, find newer spaces for doing business, and expand its market reach. While no single formula guarantees growth right away, there is a near visible march towards progress if the company is patient and keeps up with its strategy and efforts,” says Tony Chazhoor

India is a challenging but interesting market. What is your take and experience in the Indian market especially when it comes to positioning an international product in the local market?

While India is such a large country – due to its sheer geographical spread and diversity – and poses challenges like infrastructure, income disparities and varying business and economic conditions across the length and breadth of the country, I see a positive side in terms of its demographic trends where 65% of the population is below the age of 35 and a rising middle class of nearly 300 million people. The Indian economy growing steadily at 7.5% and above is set to become the world’s fastest growing economy in the near future. It is for these reasons that India is a challenging and interesting market at the same time and remains an attractive proposition for American and European businesses.

IPC’s position in India is directly linked to the growth of cleaning services in the Asia Pacific region where the CAGR in the region is stated to be 7%, and fastest in India where it is hovering around 20% by the industry estimates. Due to largely unorganised structure of the Indian cleaning market, a substantiating research would be required to corroborate the growth of Indian cleaning services.

The Indian market place is varied and price driven one and the focus of IPC India has always been to understand the target market segment. We are professional cleaning machines & equipment supplier and our growth is fuelled by the increase in project construction activity, commercial and residential real estate development coupled with the rise of professional cleaning companies catering to the ever increasing demand for cleaning in retail, commercial, health care, HORECA, manufacturing and processing industries and transport sectors. Our objective has always been to provide efficient, enduring, economical and eco-friendly solutions

In the last 22 years of our presence in the Indian market, our experience has been quite overwhelming and especially exciting over the last three years as we decided to change our strategy and open our branch offices in the major commercial/industrial cities across the country and reach our customers directly. As one of the leading manufacturers across the globe, our core competence has always been manufacturing. We manufacture machines for many brands across the world. In India until 2015, our sales mainly relied on the efficacy of our indirect channel.

Positioning an international brand in Indian dynamics especially a product like cleaning machine is fraught with its own challenges. The cleaning machines per se in their product life cycle stage are at growth curve in India just yet. The economy of scale has not been reached. An impediment to faster growth and spread of mechanization is essentially the high prices of the machines. Evolved markets in America and Europe have overcome these challenges.

Our positioning strategy has always been focused on endurance of the products and the relatively low ownership cost. We worked on a marketing communication specially for Indian market, that creates awareness of the most appropriate and optimized solutions which can be provided to our customers for diverse requirements & for various unaddressed pain points.

There is a further need to create awareness about the right & optimal mechanisation of cleaning here and the many benefits – like removal of stigma associated with manual cleaning, and improvement of image of cleaning as a profession- that it would bring along.

What are the specific solutions IPC India is offering for industries and commercial properties?

Given the wide portfolio of machines and tools that IPC has, the specific solutions for specific cleaning needs are recommended and have been accepted widely by our customers- be it for commercial cleaning like facades, gutters, drains and high rise windows where safety & accessibility is a challenge still. The IPC machines High Pure, Green Tube and SkyVac have filled the gap in the market. There is no need for using scaffoldings, bosun’s chair or elevated platforms; thus cutting the risk out of otherwise such anxiety filled tasks. The machines can be operated standing on the ground and no chemicals are required while carrying out the cleaning.

A host of solutions like manual & mechanized ride-on scrubber driers, sweepers, steam cleaners and hot & cold water high pressure washers are available for other outdoor & indoor cleaning needs.

As for the industrial applications, with the largest variety of Industrial vacuums in the world, I would say that IPC tops the table. Our customers range from the pharmaceutical industry to food industry to beverage bottling plants and heavy production and maintenance units of the metro yards. The IPC’s industrial vacuum range offers continuous 24×7 operations, complete safety while handling hazardous and explosive dusts, handling metal chips to carrying out stringent job requirements of clean and white rooms.

The versatile industrial products are also employed in cotton mills scouring hazardous fluff to removing cobwebs from high ceilings and bird droppings on façade and glass ceilings.

The current market trend?

The market is witnessing a change and the partnerships and acquisitions are altering the landscape of the cleaning industry as a whole. Big players with experience of their international business environs are either partnering with big local players or acquiring small established businesses. They are raising the overall bar and a new culture of hygiene consciousness is being introduced. In turn, the increased mechanisation methods employed by these large players are not only making the cleaning more productive, safe and reliable but also gradually eroding the taboo associated with cleaning in India. From ‘visibly’ clean to ‘hygienically’ clean approachnow this is a paradigm shift which is underway.

The need of the hour is to cut down on the use of resources employed in the cleaning methods by switching to technology that focuses on sustainability by being frugal on the use of water and cleaning agents and also using intelligent technology to minimize operational costs. The case in point would be IPC eco-design professional vacuums, filter less industrial vacuums, patented flow mix vacuum technology, SLS systems in scrubber driers and double battery life models of mechanised sweepers.

Another challenge is to optimize the cost of the machines so that the technology is readily accepted by the consumer. By introducing the cost saving technology, the mechanization will find more takers and thus the desired economy of scale can be achieved. One more factor towards creating a sustainable cleaning model is to produce multi-tasking machines e.g. machines which can vacuum and also double as upholstery cleaners or the scrubber-driers which can presweep as well.

The spread of cost saving mechanization in a country like ours will transform the perceptions and its adoption for large scale outdoor cleaning shall provide us the much needed preventive cleaning advantage.

Keeping the varied needs of the customer in mind -and not toeing the line of common industry practice of pushing available capacity machine models owing to the limited inventories and product line- IPC is quick at customizing the most suitable cleaning solutions for specific cleaning purposes, allowing our customer the power to choose the right and cost effective solution from our wide range.

IPC India on its part is geared up to meet the need of spreading awareness about technology and benefits of cleaning. We have a dedicated training academy and a trainer for training our existing and prospective customers, and industrial teams. A janitorial training programme has also been developed and we are helping companies to create their own training programmes.

Your future plans?

We would deepen our penetration of the commercial and industrial sectors, aiming for a horizontal growth and expanding our reach further. Also the plans are afoot to raise a team of product specialists for specific segments so that the customers are educated about the right products for the right cleaning applications. We shall be introducing a wide range of domestic consumer models in the coming two years in the market.

There shall also be organizational upgradations in terms of automation. We are working towards providing better facilities to our employees. We seek to empower our employees to be leaders and decision makers in the inclusive eco-system that nurtures their talent and fosters their growth. It is our organizational goal to make the inspiration a centralized but the initiative a decentralized function of our process.

“Having said that about employees, I must also say that it is imperative that the top executive remains the rain maker in a business order”.

Industry Feedback

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IPC in a very short time, made an impressive mark in the equipment supply industry. ServiceMASTER India today enjoys great partnership with IPC which brings forth price competitiveness, quality and a well established service network. We find Tony at the forefront displaying commitment and engagement to the highest level with his business partners like us…

— Edward D’Souza, President- Service MASTER India

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Throughout our decade-long association, IPC products have proved to be extremely durable and the after-sales service prompt and impeccable. We highly recommend IPC

— Bikram Chadha, Managing Director, Impressions Services (P) Limited

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247 Facility Service Connect Pvt Ltd has been partnering with IPC for all our cleaning machines and equipment for the past three years. Amazing team, quick in response and after sales service. The products are robust and require minimum spares in their life cycle. pricing is very competitive and does not pinch our budgets.

— Bandi Kanna, Chief Executive Officer, 24×7 Facility Service Connect Pvt. Ltd

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IPC has been our partners for many years now. The company leadership is in sync with our vision and we are extremely satisfied with products and especially after sales service in all sectors of operations. The products are cost effective and overall cost of ownership of products is also great.

– Saurabh Agarwal, Director, Unify Facility Management Pvt. Ltd

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“Our association with IPC goes a long way. It has been a mutually rewarding experience. The machines are economical, easy to operate and the spare parts readily available. Their after sales service is upto the mark and the staff is courteous. I wish them every success”

— Gaurav Pathak, Director, CLR Services

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“We have been associated with IPC for the past two years and find the machines to be very user friendly and economical. The after sales service and availability of spares through company branch network is very good. What I like about IPC is its customer-centric approach, which is driven from the top management of the company where slightest of the customer issue is addressed on priority

– Kunal Jasani, General Manager-Supply Chain, Dusters Total Solutions Services Pvt. Ltd

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IPC has supplied housekeeping machines and tools for our hotel in Kolkata and other locations meeting our budgetary and technical requirements. We are happy with the prompt supply of equipment and the training imparted to our house keepers.

— Ashish Trehan, Senior Manager – Assets & Facilities, InterGlobe Hotels Pvt. Ltd.

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IPC products have been excellent. The customer care service team is very good and always available to us and attending on every issue

— Srinivasa,
CPC Manager, Mumbai, Reliance Retail Ltd.

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The IPC machines are durable and value for money. A wide range of cleaning solutions available with them demonstrates their scope.

— C.K. Cherian (Mr. Cherian Kovoor Cherian), Director Institutional Hospitality, Sarovar Hotels Pvt. Ltd.

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We are using IPC products from many years. We do not have any complaints with respect to service, attending calls & spares. Products which are being used in our campus are robust & user friendly. We prefer to continue this relationship.

All the best for future endeavours.

— V.R Laghate Addi. Director- Purchase & Sourcing, Serum Institute Of India Ltd

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We have been working with IPC for the last 4-5 years in auto segment and we are quite satisfied with products and services provided by the Company. IPC has a large range of products for customer applications and needs. All IPC products are good in terms of quality, capacity and maintenance

— Brijesh Ghadiya &Tejas Motiwala, Waterless

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