Koremec Group comprises of Autosys Engineering, Autosys Control Systems, Autosys Products and Kore Mechatronics. The group does turn-key industrial automation projects. Over three decades, the core team has executed more than 500 projects - from material handling and conveying systems (mechanical intensive) to water and waste water projects (instrumentation intensive), from large scale 5000+ IOs PLC systems to robotics, IoT and cloud based software projects. Koremec has one of the most experienced multi-disciplinary teams with diverse exposure to multiple sectors and industries in the field of industrial automation, says Jayakumar V, Director, Koremec Group, Chennai, in this interview.

What factors have contributed to your growth in FY22 & Q1 FY23?
After a brief dip due to Covid in the last 2 years, the market has really bounced back. In some areas, the demand is more than supply and our order book is really full.

Despite a volatile environment, how are you managing to keep growth momentum going?
We are very careful and choosy about the kind of projects we take up and that means we don’t get bogged down by resource limitations or time delays. We say what we can do, and do what we say; execute with extreme efficiencies and fiercely guard our bottom lines.

Is worst of supply chain issues and rising raw material prices behind us?
The problems related to chip shortages are still affecting delivery times for many electronic items. There is also a sudden spurt in demand from large scale infrastructure investments in sectors like power, water and waste water. We hope these shortages are temporary and we will be able to grow without any supply side limitations.

How is your company tapping some of the emerging trends in the market?
More and more customers are seeing the imperative to invest in digital technologies. Covid has accelerated the growth of the automation industry. There is more demand for IoT, remote monitoring and data integration software than earlier. We are rightly positioned to address the chasm between IT and OT as we have experience in both.

Any new solutions in the offing?
Our expertise is in designing and engineering optimal solutions to solve our customer’s problems and then go on to execute them within a fixed time and budget. If there is anything new we are offering, I can talk about our Project Management Services. Here, we sit on the customer side of the table, guide them through the entire project, help them choose vendors and implementation partners and also save them substantial costs by capex optimisation. We take a small per cent of the total project value as our fee. So we make money, only when the project gets executed as planned.

Sustainability is a buzzword in industries. What steps are you taking to reduce your carbon footprint?
Earlier, we use to make a lot of site visits during the pre-sales process and also during post sale implementations. With the advent of video calling and other digital technologies such as shared drives and documents, we are able to collaborate with the customer’s team (and our vendors) without making as many physical visits as before. COVID has taught everyone to be more efficient in remote management and execution. We intend to continue and improve on this trend.

What are your growth plans for the future?
We see a lot more demand in the market and there are very few reliable companies like us who can execute well in a multi-disciplinary project. More and more customers are coming back to us, asking us to take more orders. We can grow 10X our current size within the next 3 years and we are actively looking for investors to scale and expand our business.