Q) Please brief us about Agro Engineers & share some your milestones?
A) Agro Engineers is an enterprise owned and managed by Mr Kuldeep Aggarwal. He has done engineering from IIT Roorkee and Master in Technology from MREC, Durgapur (W.B.). Hailing mainly from a family of service class father, he was inspired by the vision of Nehru for creating a technically strong India. He setup a small workshop in a rented shop in Kota in 1969 and took up small maintenance job work and technically challenging jobs of manufacturing ceiling fans which were at that time considered to be manufactured by large corporate only.
In 1972, Agro Engineers purchased Industrial Plot at E-3, Industrial Estate, Kota and dedicated itself to producing high precision engineering spare parts like shafts, gears, chain sprockets, racks, assemblies and heavy engineering equipment like cranes and hoists, stone machines, welding electrode plant  etc.
By 1996, the enterprise was recognized as specialist in mechanical power transmission equipment. It focused on manufacturing high precision:

• Spur, Helical and Bevel Gears
• Worm Shaft and Worm Wheel Sets
• Gear Boxes
• Chain Sprockets
• Rack and Pinions
• Cranes and Hoists

In 1999, the enterprise received its first export order for manufacture and supply of high precision Rack and Pinions to Ireland. Today, it exports to nearly a dozen countries of the world.
In February, 2003, the company received ISO 9001:2008 certification for Quality management system from United Registrar of System, UK.
In 2005, a new company M/s Agnee Transmission P Ltd was formed and a new factory was purchased at F-557, Indraprastha Industrial Estate with the intent to make export quality Gear Boxes. The plant and machinery for this project is currently under development.

Q)  How are you structuring your business activities?
A) The company is family owned. While Mr Kuldeep Aggarwal guides the company and looks after the administrative affairs, Mr Anuj Aggarwal (B.E., M.I.E.) looks after the technical and manufacturing affairs. Mr Ashish Aggarwal (B.Com.) looks after the marketing and commercial affairs.
The company strongly believes in the Team work, with all the participants of the business starting from suppliers, workers and staff and the dealers.
The suppliers are recognized for their contribution in the price and quality competitiveness of the enterprise. We work with them closely, provide them feedback and help them improve their supplies. This has ensured us suppliers who are now more than just suppliers, some suppliers are have now completed more than three decade of successful supplies and are more of family friends than suppliers.
The enterprise is made by its workers. The directors are assisted by highly motivated, hard working, highly skilled staff and workers. The company believes in equality. Every employee is considered and treated equally, right from the peon to the Director of the company. This has ensured a very low work turnover ratio. Some workers have successfully completed their whole term of service and peacefully retired. Even those who have got better opportunities and moved on, choose to keep in touch. Personal relations with every personnel remain the hallmark of the company.
The Dealers are torch bearers of the enterprise and first point, sometimes only point of contact with the customer. The enterprise recognizes the local service providing ability of the dealer and has a very strong dealer policy. The company has exclusive city wise dealer arrangement for selling, distribution and customer servicing. Every dealer is carefully chosen. Once chosen, he is assisted by a service engineer, promotional activities like regular advertising, participation in trade fairs, technical literatures etc.
The clear specialization of every personnel in his/her field has ensured all round development of the organization and the enterprise.

Q) Please brief us about Agro Engineer’s global reach & its business activities?
A) The company has made its humble share in the overall export performance of the country. It has exported to United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, Italy, France, Germany, Ireland, United Kingdom and United States of America.
In India, the bulk of company sales comes from it Dealers. The company has 14 exclusive dealers and they are rising every month.

Q) How do you account R&D activity in your company?
A) The enterprise is working on creating gear box that will be more compact, more reliable and yet cheaper than the conventional gear boxes. In general day to day working, the enterprise is focused on continuously improving the quality of the product and producing it more competitively. Recently, the company has acquired some top of the line imported machines to improve the quality. Various jigs and fixtures are developed every day to increase the consistency and decrease the cost of production. Further,

Q) What are the realistic steps taken to improve the Agro Engineer’s position in industrial gears & motors market?
A) Agro Engineers is focused on producing Worm Gear Boxes. It has proven track record of Worm Gear Boxes that have been performing for years with minimum or no maintenance in toughest of environment and high demanding performances.
The company assists its dealers with Technical Literature and promotional material for the education and knowledge of the design and maintenance engineers. Regional service engineers are stationed at major Industrial Hubs. Full Page advertisement are carried in all the major Industrial publication of India. The company has made its web site www.agroengineers.com to reach globally. Nearly, all the export orders and many Indian orders have been received by this web site.

Q) How about the branding activities you are planning for the Agro Engineers?
A) The enterprise believes that a satisfied customer is the best Brand Ambassador. We focus all our energies on providing the customer with best possible product at the most competitive prices with good after sales support. This is our job and simply doing this has yielded good dividends in terms of brand reorganization and spread. Most of the customers we get today are referred by our existing customers.

Q) Brief us about the quality policy for your business?
A) The quality standards followed by the enterprise are standards specified under ISI by the Bureau of Indian Standards. Monthly chemical analyses of batches are conducted and duly noted. Every part is numbered, measured for dimensional accuracy and the dimensions duly noted during the production process before the assembly. Finally assembled Gear Box is run on no load for 20 minutes and checked for any leakages, vibration, noises or any abnormal behavior. Regular feedback is solicited from customers about the quality of the product and services of the company. The company has ISO 9001:2000 certification for Quality management system from United Registrar of Systems, UK in February, 2003.

Q) Which are the some of your pioneering products you introduced in the market to face the competition?
A) The company has been selling AGNEE Extra Heavy Duty Worm Gear Boxes. These Gear Boxes boast ruggedness and work in most challenging environment. They weigh nearly 30% more than its competitors.
Recently, we have introduced high accuracy Racks.

Q) What are the customer’s requirement in Indian & Global market. How do you encounter it?
A) The customer’s requirement is fairly simple – A good quality product at reasonable prices. This is exactly what he finds with AGNEE Worm Gear Boxes. In addition, we provide prompt sales and service support.

Q)  Could you brief us on Indian & Global perspective of industrial gear & motors industry?
A) Globally and in India, Industrial Gears remain a very challenging Industry. The Gear, motors and mechanical power transmission equipment is generally highly competitive with very low margins. Many old and established players, some 100 years old have been unable to withstand the competition. Last 7 years have been especially critical with cost of input doubling, but sale prices rising by few percentage points. Since, the buyer is generally well educated about the product, premium pricing rarely survives.
Gears are the most critical part of any plant and machinery. They affect the reliability and the cost of production. Although, Gears are most basic form of engineering product, reliable and cost effective suppliers are difficult to identify. Secondly, gear boxes lack the standardization of sizes unlike Electric Motors. So, in case of break down of gears, repair or replacement may take considerable time, generally few days, sometimes this may run into months. So, generally, customers prefer reliability over everything.
India recently has seen global interest from customers. Indian Gear Boxes are of best quality in the world and the prices are among the lowest. This is slowly gaining recognisation. Last 4 years have seen global Gear Box giants setting up their factory in India or taking over Indian factory to benefit from Indian technical expertise and low cost of production. These players have increased the already intense competition in the Indian markets. At the same time, Indian Gear Boxes and mechanical power transmission equipment, whether Industrial or Automotive product have been receiving world wide admiration. The Indian Gear Box industry is all set to experience the Export boom. Indian Gear Industry faces the challenge of meeting the global expectations.

Q) According you what are the factors affecting to your business?
A) Gear Boxes is a capital product. The business is directly proportional to the growth of economy. Secondly, this product requires high level of technically expert and dedicated team. Indian and International business has seen some of the most difficult years, but, now the business is seen to be improving. This will have positive impact on Gear box industry.
Indian workforce is rightly recognized to be technically expert and hardworking. So, this may have a positive impact in global competitiveness of Indian Gear Box Industry.

Q) What are the key technological trends that are driving the industrial gear & motors industry?
A) The most radical change in Indian gear Industry has been in area of teeth cutting of gears. Till about few years ago, most of the gears in India were cut on Milling machines. Now, nearly all gears have teeth generation (as opposed to teeth cutting) on Gear Hobbing, gear shapers etc. This has increased the accuracy of distribution of teeth and the teeth profile phenomenally nearly to perfection. The gears generated on these modern machines are highly efficient, silent, vibration free and give good life. Strong competition has ensured that the increase in cost of production due to high tooling and capital cost had to be absorbed by the manufacturer. This has been good for the buyer, he is getting good quality product at nearly the same price. This has also lead to increase in market size. With the adoption of latest technology by Indian Gear manufacturers, the Indian Gear Industry today is the most competitive worldwide in terms of both quality and price.

Q) What is your vision for Agro Engineers?
A) Agro Engineers has always focused on technical expertise. Recently, the enterprise has invested in marketing. We realize that market today and in near future will require best quality product at the most competitive prices. The competition will continue to increase. Fortunately, Agro Engineers has the advantage of strong manufacturing infrastructure, excellent rapport with the suppliers, dealers, customers and the team workers. We will continue to use these advantages to offer customers better quality products at the most competitive prices. Our experience has shown that customers refer us to other customers. We strongly believe that if we continue to do our job well, our customers will keep on helping us reach the market leadership in Gear Box Industry.
Second most interesting phenomenon we are witnessing today is the interest of International buyers in the services and products Agro Engineers. While this is certainly a good news, the expectations from global buyers is something of a challenge we will have to meet. We are investing heavily to meet their technical expectations. We have been consistently meeting their requirements. The general price competitiveness of India coupled with hard word and dedication of our team will help us attain global ambitions.

Q) What are the issues you need to address that are related to your industry?
A) Our Industry is highly competitive and generally co-operative. They must continue to keep their positive attitude intact in face of difficult circumstances. Agro Engineers in particular needs to keep upgrading technically. Although, we have made significant investments in improving our product quality, there always remains a room for improvement. Till now, we have been focusing on Indian market, now, we need to focus on World market and this will require improvement in customer feedback and servicing mechanism. With the co-operation of our team members, I am confident of achieving this.

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