Gates – POWERING Progress

Providing the right product at right time for right application is the key driving Gates’ success. 

    with over 14,000 employees across 106 locations in 30 countries and 50 manufacturing facilities worldwide, Gates Corporation is committed to advancing the science of motion performance by developing safe, forward-thinking products, services, systems and solutions. Gates has its presence in India for the last 20 years with employee strength of 1400 people. With four manufacturing facilities, Gates India offer solutions through OEMs and also caters to aftermarket requirements. Gates in India offer fluid power and power transmission products and solutions and are constantly expanding their portfolio and network to service the customers. The relationship and partnerships with customers are rock solid, and they produce tremendous returns. “Our Investment in our employees is of utmost importance to us, which we value the most for creating a strong company identity and culture. The mutual respect, belief, loyalty, commitment and trust are few of the traits of the culture prevailing in our organization,” states Rajesh Bhandari, Managing Director, Power Transmission and Fluid Power Business.

Growth Opportunities
Growth of Gates business in India is really interesting and is the preferred partner of choice by the customers. “We partner with most of the global brands and is teaming up and working closely with original equipment makers and replacement market. We therefore leverage on brand, network, global R&D to drive growth in India,” says Bhandari. He adds, “We continue to develop very high quality products and now we are in much more better position to be ready to tap on growth in India region.”

Vision 2020 
Having a strong global R&D capability for product development has enabled us to have dynamic and competent presence in India. With support of India’s functional technical expertise, Gates is having a substantial footprint in market today. “Working closely with customers and providing the right product available at right time for right application is the key to drive success. One of our major strategies to support our customers is through amalgamation of both businesses, focused to leverage on brand, network and R&D to drive growth, says Bhandari. According to him with many developments and new projects coming up in India, there is a good scope going forward. He avers, “To support 100 smart cities project, we are in development stage of mapping our distribution channel to identify opportunities.” Bhandari further added, “In automotive space, we are at initial development stage with two top OEMs in two- wheelers segment. In industrial segment, capital equipment is another rapidly growing area along with the excavator space in India which we are looking as an area of focus.”

Sustaining the Leadership
According to Bhandari customers differentiate Gates for its technology and products which meets their requirement in local market condition. “Our internal manufacturing capabilities with the external partnership are a key aspect for achieving a competitive advantage. Our continuous innovation with over 2500 patents has put us in very strong position in existing market. The other thing is capability in terms of meeting product specifications,” he says.
The Gates philosophy is of having products which shall look and perform the same across the globe. To cater its customers Gates have two ranges of products. The premium range of products last for 2~2.5 times higher than the stated specifications and on the other hand, Gates has fit for purpose product line which meets the required specifications.

All the products in India get developed at the R&D center in Lalru and are approved by the Customer Solution Centre at Denver. Its products are highly robust as they are designed considering the extreme conditions of environment. Gates have products suitable for extreme summers in India while it has also a range suitable for cold freeze countries. “We are able to scale up as our customers scale up globally. Total cost of ownership is one of the important key drivers that differentiate us,” stresses Bhandari.

New Growth Initiatives
Looking ahead, Gates will be pursuing a range of new growth initiatives, ranging from refining the quality and variety of products, streamlining customer service, and focusing on globalization to cater customer expansion, while still maintaining regional excellence. In India, Gates has been servicing industries like Energy, Exploration and Extraction, Infrastructure and Agriculture, Transportation, Automotive and Processing and Specialty. “Moving forward we would be focusing on stationary equipment, mining and construction equipment markets. We have a strong brand recall with a significant customer base in India,” informs Bhandari.
On industrial product side few new hoses are coming up. Trials for one of its unique kind, 6000 psi hose with 4- wire braid has been successfully done and is on field testing and Gates would be formally launching it in coming few months. Having the presence in heavy duty equipment on fluid power side, Gates is also working with automotive makers on two wheelers and four wheelers. On the automotive side, BSG (Belt Starter Generator) technology is one and there are few more coming in. “We are also able to bring the global technology to India in alignment to the products and price as per local market conditions. We do not compromise in quality in order to have the competitive pricing but use our technology to drive cost down,” states Bhndari.

Moving Forward
With Gates global presence, Gates is servicing big players in industries like automotive, construction equipment, mining, drilling rigs, stationary equipment, agriculture et al. Over the years, Gates has established itself as an OE-fit. According to Bhandari Gates work on real time extreme conditions to provide OEM’s total hydraulic and power transmission solutions. “We are not only a product provider but a solution provider. To increase lifecycle and product performance of OE’s we support them with application engineering by routing right product at right application. and hence we are progressively leading in the market,” emphases Bhandari.
Gates has a strong focus in mining industry where mean time between failures is high. Gates chips in here with value addition by proper routing, application engineering expertise and providing solutions to increase uptime by four times. “We always insist on system buying rather hoses and coupling separately to derive the maximum benefits out of it, says Bhandari.

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