As Laboratory equipment play a major in various industries like pharma & chemical industries, food processing, healthcare, etc. Elektrocraft India Pvt Ltd - started by P Ramachandran - has been serving this industry with its high-quality and value-for-money equipment and services for more than four decades. In this interview, P Ramachandran, Chairman & Managing Director, Elektrocraft, highlights on opportunities for new research-based and custom-built products for use in laboratories and pharma supply chains.

Could you tell us about your company and the products & services you offer?
The flagship company of the Eltek group was established in the year 1977 to produce a wide variety of scientific equipment for use in laboratories of pharma & chemical industries, research labs., agricultural research, hospitals and healthcare, blood banks, food processing industries etc.

It manufactures laboratory equipment like stirrer, magnetic stirrer, rota mantles, centrifuge, high speed centrifuge, blood bank centrifuge, laboratory refrigerators, laboratory deep freezers, vortex mixers, VDRL shakers, orbital shakers, orbital shaking incubators, laboratory ovens, laboratory water baths, blood bank refrigerators, blood bank freezers, blood bag tube sealers, blood collection monitors, platelet incubators, platelet agitators, thawing baths, autoclaves etc.

Along with standard products, it also offers custom built special equipment and services like AMC’s and calibration of all laboratory equipment.

The goods produced are supplied to all the states in India and also exported to various countries around the world.

Compared to 2020, how was the growth in 2021? What is driving the demand?
As compared to 2020-21, the financial year 2021-22 has been slightly better and we are seeing increase in orders after Q2. In general, there has been growth and we anticipate reaching pre-pandemic levels soon.

What are the key lessons for you due to the Covid pandemic? What changes did it bring to your company and to the industry?
The pandemic has taught us to be resilient and be ready for change. It has helped us to plan well for all such adverse situations. Today, we are better equipped to tackle all such challenges. We have made some changes in the way we produce our goods and deliver our services. It is planned on more sustainable platforms. The pandemic gave us a chance to evaluate our supplier base and streamline the supply-chain division.

Overall, in the industry we have seen many changes in the way companies operate and there has been re-structuring in many organisations. Many companies, including ours have understood that products need to be upgraded or tweaked for a better customer experience and for this many small-scale industries are now investing heavily on R&D.

How is the demand for your products & solutions? What distinguishes them from those of your competitors?
Eltek, as a brand, has a strong customer base and we have seen great demand in recent times for laboratory equipment and services. With Eltek Lab products, the customer is confident that he gets value for money and a world-class product.

What new products & solutions have you introduced in the market in the last 2 years? Do you plan to launch new products in the near future?
After December 2019, we have introduced some new products specifically for vaccine storage and for targeted research in medicines. For the future, we are planning to review our product range and phase out a few products that are slowly becoming obsolete. Simultaneously, we will introduce new products as per the demand in the region. Due to our strong R&D capability, we are now sure that we can cater to any new requirements from this industry.

What are the key challenges faced by your customers today? How does your company help them overcome those challenges?
We talk a lot to our customers and understand the issues they face while using lab products. We then go back to our R& D and see how we could tweak our product for a better customer experience. Listening to our customers and taking constructive feedback is what we feel, is our strength.

In the last one and a half years, the government has announced a number of initiatives like Aatmanirbhar Bharat, PLI scheme, re-definition of MSMEs, etc. Do you think these initiatives will benefit the industry?
We have seen that our industry is now growing more resilient and have slowly adopted the ‘Make in India’ initiative of the Government. More and more raw materials are now being sourced from Indian manufacturers and the best part is that dependence on foreign raw materials is getting reduced. The Government has introduced many schemes like the ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’, PLI scheme etc., and this will help the industry to grow sustainably.

Automation is a buzzword today. Is your company adopting automation?
For process improvement, reducing wastage and standardisation across our product range, we have invested in automation for manufacturing as well as products. This has led to improvement in quality and better reliability.

Sustainability and environment awareness are growing in the industry. How is your company gearing up for this trend?
Our government is committed to phasing out fossil fuels in the next 50 years, so calculated steps have to be taken now. As a committed organisation, we are planning to introduce solar power in our factory. We have also invested in R&D to increase the efficiency and reduce the electrical losses in our product range. We are also educating our supply chain to adopt to sustainable practices conducive for sustainability and for environment protection.

We anticipate a major change in the way procurement will happen in the future. Many organisations are now committed to buying products from reliable sources that manufacture it sustainably. This has led to many small suppliers being ready for, and be educated about, this trend which will be very important for the future.

As the demand for sustainably sourced products surges, many new industries will be born out of this demand and we are looking to expand our product range based on it. There will be opportunities for new research-based products and custom-built products for use in laboratories and pharma supply chains.

What are the growth plans for your company?
As a short-term plan, we will continue to support the industry and supply world class products with more customisation. Our long-term plan is to look for diversification and introduce more sustainable products.

We are now looking to set up a second factory to introduce new products in the laboratory segment and slowly diversify, adopting sustainable and environment friendly practices and indigenously sourced raw materials.