Indian end-user industries for bearings can look forward to some really top quality and world-renowned brands of an exhaustive range from the Primeroll stable. They have overcome the challenges during the pandemic by fortifying their supply chain through strategic planning. In this interview C R Chandalia, MD, Primeroll International Pvt Ltd is confident that their customers can now look forward to customised solutions and timely deliveries.

How is Primeroll serving customers in India?
Primeroll International Pvt Ltd is a part of a group of companies which is operating in India since 1975. In 2019, this company was appointed as the exclusive authorised distributor of the Rollway brand of bearings, as well as an authorised distributor of McGill and SealMaster range of products for India. These brands are of American origin, over 100 years old, and are owned by RegalRexnord Corporation, a multi-billion-dollar American conglomerate. Its bearing division is headquartered at Antwerp, Belgium.

The Rollway range of products are of American design and consist of deep groove ball bearings, self-aligning ball bearings, angular contact ball bearings, ball thrust bearings, taper roller bearings, cylindrical roller bearings, spherical roller bearings and different types of roller thrust bearings with cylindrical, taper or spherical rollers as the rolling elements, spherical plain bearings, etc. Besides, Rollway is capable of designing and supplying special tailor-made solutions for demanding applications.

McGill and SealMaster are brands that are globally considered as leaders in their respective product ranges. While McGill offers a large array of unmounted bearing units such as CAMROL, TRACKROL, CAGEROL, GUIDEROL and SPHERE-ROL bearings, SealMaster range includes high quality mounted bearings that include the SealMaster Gold Line. The speciality of SealMaster is that the mounted bearings range from ball bearings, taper roller bearings, as well as traditional self-aligning bearings. The housings include 316 stainless steel, high strength composite material besides standard steel as the material of construction.

These products cater to almost all conceivable segments of industries, and we are in the process of reaching out to them. The services that we offer are primarily bringing in these world-class American bearings at affordable prices to the Indian industry. And the most important service that we render is ensuring availability of these products in Indian Rupees and very fast deliveries from our central warehouse located near Kolkata.

Are you seeing a pick-up in demand in 2021-22 (compared to 2020-21)? What is driving the market?
We entered the market shortly before the Covid-19 pandemic broke out globally. Nonetheless, we did make progress in 2020-21, and of course, our performance in the current year i.e., 2021-22 is far better, mainly because the demand is high and growing. The driving force behind the market is the great revival of overall demand and the huge backlog of requirements that needs to be met very quickly.

What were the key learnings for you because of Covid pandemic? What changes have been brought about in your company and in the industry due to the Covid pandemic?
The Covid pandemic taught us to think out-of-the-box. After the first shock of lock down, we learnt to e-communicate both internally as well as with our customers and dealers. We equipped our employees with appropriate means of e-communications and revamped our logistics system with appropriate Covid protocols. Regular sanitisation of our facilities was institutionalised and we ensured that our employees get complete vaccination cover as soon as possible.

And I am sure the Indian industries more or less followed the same blue print. Besides that, the industries also adopted rationalised operational protocols, thus compensating for the loss of business to a large extent. This resulted in survival of the industries through the peak period of the pandemic and allowed them to roar back onto the path of recovery and growth, once the situation turned better.

What makes your products & solutions unique from those of the competitors?
The demand for the products and solutions offered by Primeroll International is growing day by day. And that is due to the fact that our brands in the Indian market are well known and highly respected globally, and also by the Indian industries. These products are of American design, time-tested and their efficacies are well proven. In case of the McGill and SealMaster product ranges, no brands in this country can match their range and performance. As regards the Rollway product range, their designs are unique in many ways from what our competitors offer. We have succeeded in bringing these products at affordable prices to our customers with prompt delivery guaranteed in most cases.

Which new products & solution have you introduced in the market in the last 2 years? Do you plan to launch new products in the near future?
Most of the products were virtually launched by us around about middle of 2019. The unfortunate advent of Covid 19 pandemic from the first quarter of 2020 notwithstanding, we continued introducing the Rollway, McGill and SealMaster product ranges in a phased manner.

As regards new products, our principals RegalRexnord Corporation has a huge range of products on offer. We plan to introduce some of them in the near future. We will share the details once the arrangement is firmed up. Did you develop or launch any new products & solutions during the Covid pandemic?
Primeroll launched a series of new products even during the Covid pandemic, the most notable among them being the SealMaster Goldline mounted bearings.

How is your company helping customers to overcome some of the challenges that they are facing today?
The key challenges faced by our customers today is acute shortage and delayed deliveries of quality bearings. We are addressing this issue quite successfully today, because we had anticipated this situation and got adequate stocks in place during the Covid pandemic. With the help of this stock, and the state-of-the-art warehouse with all modern and efficient facilities that Primeroll has invested in, we are able to service our customers today to their satisfaction.

What are the emerging trends in the bearing industry?
The emerging trend in our industry is no different from the overall industrial scenario – and that is to recover from the losses sustained during the Covid pandemic, get used to the new normal and push ahead with full steam to make the best use of the existing opportunities. At the same time, we must start preparing for the new technologies, new opportunities and new challenges that are coming in.

In the last one and half years, the government has announced a number of initiatives like Aatmanirbhar Bharat, PLI scheme, etc. Do you think these initiatives will benefit the industry?
From the greater perspective of economic growth of the country, these initiatives are indeed beneficial for the industry in the long run.

How is your company adopting automation?
Automation that we have adopted is primarily related to customer service and the supply chain management areas. Specifically speaking, we have brought about a much greater degree of automation in our new warehouse, so as to make the material flow – both inward and outward – faster as well as accurate. At the same time, we have introduced ERP in our overall supply chain management system to bring in speed and accuracy in the overall business process.

Sustainability and environment awareness are growing in the industry. How is your company gearing up for this trend?
The world today is tottering on the verge of ecological disaster brought about by mindless introduction and use of materials that are not bio-degradable. At the same time, mass scale deforestation and ever-increasing use of fossil fuel is pushing up global warming and resulting in fatal climate changes all over the world.

As conscientious citizens of the world, we are aware of these facts, and have taken significant steps to contribute our might towards bolstering sustainability as well as protecting the environment. We have drastically reduced use of single-use plastic and wood in our warehouse. Throughout our organisation, we have minimised the use of paper and utilise e-communications to the maximum possible extent.

What new opportunities are you looking to tap in the market?
For a new enterprise like ours, there is a lot of ground yet to be covered, and we are exploring each and every possibility for making inroads. The big advantage that we have on our side is our ability to offer to Indian industries top class American products at competitive prices and with assured prompt deliveries. In addition, our principals, RegalRexnord Corporation have a vast number of world class brands that are not available to Indian customers today. We are very keen to bring those products in the Indian market to create a win-win situation for everyone concerned.

How do you plan to take your growth story further?
Our short and long-term growth plans, as the term suggests, is simply to grow. We work based on Sales Targets – just like any organisation but our target setting is based on ground realities explored by our marketing team, and of course, a positive attitude of bettering the best.

Business growth automatically opens up avenues for organisational expansion. In the long term, our vision is to become a "Complete Power Transmission Solution Provider". This would mean adding product ranges other than bearings and having synergy vis-a-vis all the components that complete the power transmission in a machine.