- Sanjay Jadhav, President, Sterling & Wilson Powergen (P) Ltd

Shapoorji Pallonji & Co Ltd, one of the largest construction groups in India, made a successful foray into the power generation industry in 2005 with Sterling Generators. The wide range of diesel generators from 10 kVA-3,000 kVA, are marketed by Sterling & Wilson Powergen (P) Ltd, part of the Sterling & Wilson Group, which is one of the leading MEP services company in India, with over 80 years of experience in project engineering and execution. In a short span of time, Sterling Generators has emerged as one of the country's leading players in the diesel genset business, offering 'one stop solution' to its customers which includes design, engineering, installation and commissioning. This also covers parts and service support through the life cycle of the product. The company is headquartered at Mumbai with zonal offices across the country. In this exclusive interview with IPF, Sanjay Jadhav, President, Sterling & Wilson Powergen (P) Ltd, elaborates about the company's products, plans and the trends that will shape its growth in time to come. Excerpts...

What is the size of the diesel generator market in India?

The Indian diesel generator market has been witnessing tremendous growth with rising power cuts and supply shortages across the country. Nowadays, almost each and every organisation needs consistent power supply for backup power equipment.

What is the market share of the company?

Last year the slowdown caught up Sterling Generators and growth was flat. The company, which claims a 10 per cent share in the Rs 6,000 crore domestic market, is now witnessing an improvement in the order book. Additionally, the decline in crude oil prices is a positive. For the financial year 2015-2016, we have targeted 10-15 per cent topline growth.

Do you export to other countries?

We have already opened three export offices in Dubai, Nigeria and Australia. In addition, we have also established our presence in Africa, the Middle East, many parts of Asia and New Zealand.

What are the company's plans for adding production capacity?

Our manufacturing unit is located at Silvassa and has been operational for the past nine years. It is the largest and most modern state-of-the-art DG sets manufacturing facility in Asia. This unit has gone through a capacity addition of about 30-40 per cent in the past few years. The facility presently has a capacity of manufacturing about 10,000 gensets a year. The gensets manufactured are in the range of 10 kVA-3,000 kVA. The manufacturing facility has two separate units focused on catering to the local and export markets.

Our current manufacturing facilities includes a fabrication unit where all sheet metal processing like shearing, bending, punching, etc., is carried out on world-class highly accurate CNC machines. The sheet metal is directly sourced from the manufacturer to maintain uniform product quality. We also have a busbar assembly section where cutting, punching and bending is done on hydraulic machines to achieve the desired angle and smooth edges. After cutting and bending, the busbars are covered with heat shrinkable PVC sleeves and passed through a baking oven with moving bed to shrink fit the sleeves on the busbars. In the painting section we have 14 tank pre-treatment processes that are adopted for surface cleaning of all fabricated sheet metal parts before powder coating.

This surface treatment process is being adopted for all the sheet metal components made up of sheet thickness up to 3 mm. For components above 3 mm or readymade rolled sections, shot blasting is carried out for surface cleaning. All the fabricated parts are painted with polyester-based powder for long-lasting corrosion-free life. Our powder coating booth is equipped with reciprocator for uniform coating of the surface. The coated components then go into the oven for baking on an automated conveyor system at a pre-set temperature and speed to get the optimum desired finish.

What are the challenges faced in this sector?

People often talk about addressing the customer need but we need to understand that there are different aspects to this customer need. Our aim is to create a product that is technically superior, represents the latest technology, and makes customers feel that they have taken the right decision in buying this product. And, it should also be cost-competitive as we are aware that India is a price-sensitive market. Sterling Generators has always stayed ahead of competition by improving operational efficiency and enhancing the quality of the product coupled with timely delivery.

Are there any emerging sectors that will offer new business opportunities?

We are predominantly witnessing two major technical trends in the DG sets sector which generally attracts customer demand - fuel efficiency and emission controls. Today we have products compliant with CPCB II norms and even Euro IV standards. The availability of such products hence drives the customer towards purchasing and utilising DG sets which are far more superior to the alternatives, which were available. Any product, which offers increased productivity and fuel efficiency along with minimal maintenance, and more importantly is cost-competent, drives the choice of customers towards superior products. Load characteristics though do not influence the choice for DG sets; it definitely defines the operational efficiency of that particular product. The ability to maintain a stable load ensures the efficiency and longer operational life of the DG sets.

What is the kind of R&D that the company is involved in?

At Sterling Generators listening to customers and their needs is a tradition as old as the group itself. For it is they who drive us further, make us reach higher, and create better solutions. We operate with complete job planning and management through online monitoring and planning software. Each and every stage, starting from order booking to final dispatch, is being monitored and controlled through the software.

Does the company offer any customisation and if so, is there a case study we can highlight?

Sterling Generators offers 'one stop solution' to its customers, which include design, engineering, installation and commissioning, including parts and service support through the life cycle of the product. We have always been a project-based company. Our focus has always been on big-ticket projects. Under the wide umbrella of Sterling and Wilson we cater to different verticals.

Could you elaborate about your dealership network?

Currently Sterling Generators has more than 60 dealers across India and plans to spread out to more cities and increase this spread to 120 dealers by 2016. This is because there is an increasing demand for DG sets in 2 and 3 cities. We have six dealers in Maharashtra and the plan is to add nine more by 2016. As such, most of the important cities such as Pune, Nashik, Aurangabad, Kolhapur, Nagpur, Solapur and Jalna will be covered.

Which have been some of your biggest installations?

We have installed DG sets at the Delhi International Airport (DIAL), L&T, TCS, CAIRN Energy, VSNL, Infosys, Siemens, Tata Group, SAIL, TOI and many more. But while these are all big companies, we are also going to focus on DG sets in the range of 10 kVA-500 kVA to cater to small and medium enterprises which will include commercial establishments, offices, engineering units, etc.