Jayakanthan. R, Chief Financial Officer, Elgi Equipments Limited
- Give us a bird’s eye view of how 2022 was for ELGi as a company.
Before I speak about ELGi, let me take this opportunity to say a few words in the overall context of what changed in 2022. It was a big relief to get out of the Covid fear that gripped us for about two years and get back to business as usual almost in the early part of the year. On the other hand, towards the end of the year, the focus shifted to global inflation challenges and early anxieties of a likely recession.
As far as how the year was for ELGi, it was good that the demand for products and services continued, albeit at a pace lower than what it was in 2021. On the other hand, the commodity prices stabilized reasonably, which helped us focus on the business, unlike the previous year, where a significant effort had to go into managing the extreme volatility of commodity prices which impacted our material cost. Despite the disruptions caused by the pandemic, we were able to largely deliver on our mid-term plan.
- What are the key developments at ELGi that helped with the company growth in India and globally?
As a TQM practicing company, we are well guided by a very balanced focus on executing our mid-term strategic initiatives and annual business plan. Our continued obsession with quality, launching best-in-class, energy-efficient products, and structured, customized go-to-market approach for each global markets are significant enablers for our growth strategy. We have complimented these with an enhanced level of attention to Talent Management across the organization over the last few years. It is all about Product, Process, and People, and all our initiatives are well aligned on these three dimensions.
- Which sectors witnessed the highest growth this year?
ELGi and its products and services are truly industry agnostic. Whatever be the nature of the business, manufacturing, assembly, processing, or servicing, all of them need compressed air. Our dependency on any single industry segment is very low.
- What are some of the new products that you have launched in 2022?
We have launched some impressive products during the year. While some of them are significant upgrades, some are new platforms. Our electric-powered PG 110E and the diesel-powered PG 575 – 225 trolley-mounted portable air compressors were launched early in 2022, delivering customer-centric benefits of reliability, low maintenance costs, high energy efficiency, and industry-leading productivity for drilling operations. We also launched our Intelligent, energy-efficient LD Series two-stage, direct drive duplex compressor with a proven Neuron XT Controller last year. The 10 HP and 15 HP duplex direct drive machines run with half or full load capacity to meet varying compressed air demand while ensuring high Uptime and significant energy cost reductions.
- Can you please share ELGi’s expectations from the upcoming Union Budget?
I would not want to state anything specific for ELGi. Manufacturing has a huge role to play in helping the country reach the 5 trillion economy goal. We are anxiously looking forward to seeing measures taken on various fronts, such as incentives for investments in renewable energy and emerging technologies. Logistics is another key enabler for manufacturing to contribute even more significantly, and the Government’s initiatives on this front will be very helpful.
- Lastly, what vision and outlook do you hold for the manufacturing sector for the year 2023?
The momentum of capex investment must continue and accelerate for the economy to do well. Even amidst all that is happening in the global manufacturing space, such as China+1, on-shoring/re-shoring manufacturing by developed economies, India has a huge potential, and it is for us in the Industry to do our job well and compete globally, not on the back of cost arbitrage but by delivering world-class products and services with unbeatable quality and reliability.
