WITH AN encouraging growth rate of 7%, which is not seen in other countries, especially in the food processing and beverage segments, India is different and “it holds a lot of prospects for us in the future. This is the very reason we entered into a JV with Chembond , one of the experienced players in the water treatment segment, to introduce our world class products and service back-up to the Indian market,” said Thomas. The JV is a 55:45% partnership between Chembond and Calvatis respectively, whereby Chembond will also manufacture Calvatis products in India. “We are committed to make it a success and deliver new state-of-theart solutions and interesting technologies in the Indian market,” said Nirmal.
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Chembond Chemicals, one of the leading manufacturers of specialty chemicals recently formed a joint venture with German’s Calvatis, a global manufacturer & distributor of detergents and disinfectants under the brand Calgonit. Thomas Mohr, MD-Calvatis GmbH and Nirmal Shah, MD-Chembond Chemicals speak to Clean India Journal about their premium solutions and value-added services that make the JV stand apart from its Indian competitors. [/box]
Target Segments
The focus segments are beverage, dairy and food processing, agriculture & animal/ poultry farms and institutional business. “We will start with the metro cities first and then enter into the tier II & III cities.
“With decades of experience and latest technology and R&D to be supplied by Calvatis, we have many distinct advantage over other products in the market. We do consider our clients as our partners and we work consistently to better the solutions and services to meet their needs. In short, it is not just about selling chemicals to clients, but ensuring cleaning & hygiene standards are met with. Our products are highly customised in accordance with the surface compositions that is to be cleaned. All of this is backed by our strong German R&D centre,” explained Nirmal.
[box type=”shadow” ] “To me, ‘how different is the chemical’ it is not the question… the question is how do we service? How do we connect with our customers, and how do we work out a solution along with the customer?”
– Nirmal Shah [/box]Talking about the Solutions
Around 20 products have been identified that are being manufactured in India. “We have the product range for CIP solutions for the animal farms and general hygiene. For smoke house, we have products for floor cleaning, hand sanitization and so on,” Nirmal added.
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We aim to provide the premium quality products, the approach is customer-centric and service oriented.”
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The entire range whether it is in the dairy for pasteurizer cleaning or in food processing plant, the products would be targeted towards the application that they need to serve. “It would be wrong to go by the count of products rather than the focus on requirement based solutions,” said Thomas. Besides chemical solutions, Chembond-Calvatis is also offering advance dosing and controlling equipment.
It is important to understand that the European conditions are different to India in terms of the nature of soils, the area, operating temperature and so on.
“For instance, take a bottling plant, unlike Europe, the bottle have more residue/soils that needs to be cleaned. We are working closely with the Calvatis R&D center to customize, localize and standardize the products in the Indian context,” said Nirmal.
Market Strategy
Calvatis is currently operating in 80 countries in the world either directly or through distributor or through partnership. They have a manufacturing in Thailand too.
“Based on the demand/consumption, it will be a mix of both, manufacturing as well as distribution. While the large companies’ demand will be directly addressed through the JV, smaller demands, would be addressed through our existing distributor network.
In terms of Infrastructure, we are ready and fully equipped. We are in the process of fine tuning the entire distribution or channel network such as after sales service and training people about the products,” said Nirmal.
[box type=”shadow” ]With primary focus on India, Chembond Calvatis JV will cater to the SAARC countries too. In next five years, the JV anticipates to hold a fair share of about 20-30% of the market share.[/box]
“In order to provide technical training to the sales team, we have appointed a team from Calvatis headquarters to visit the India office every quarter. The current team at Chembond Calvatis is young and enthusiastic, a must to have a good strike rate in India,” said Thomas.
Convincing Factor
India, no doubt, is a tough market for a new entrant; however, being in a similar market, gives Chembond-Calvatis at good start. “Chembond clients being aware of our service quality and commitment will help further to strengthen our reach. There is much to learn and we are not looking at an instant return on investment, but to make a commitment to bring a change in India in the long run. Our timing seems to be perfect, in sync with Make in India and Clean India. We could not only influence the change but could also drive the change to an extent. Our approach has always been “To reach out to customers to solve their problems”. At Chembond, this has been the strength for the last 40 years,” explained Nirmal.
