RoadMaster G75 ensures uncompromised mechanized solution.

Sachin Nijhawan
Vice President and Business Head Mahindra Construction,
Equipment Division.

Each and every product we launch will be innovative based on our knowledge of Indian market and our customer feedback.

Developing new niche categories has always been a hallmark of the Mahindra Group, and that DNA is apparent in its CE Division. In an exclusive interview Sachin Nijhawan, Vice President and Business Head, Mahindra Construction Equipment Division, explains how Roadmaster G 75 addresses the needs of a much neglected category, where no machines were available till now.

Tell us about your marketing strategy for RoadMaster G75 as you are competing with well established global players.
This is an innovative and a very disruptive product, not a ‘Me Too’ product, so I don’t have to compete with any established players right now. Existing graders can’t do jobs beyond express highways and national highways, and 95 per cent of road construction is happening on rural and municipal roads, hill roads, and all secondary roads. It could be state highways in the hills, but they do not come in four lanes. We have been designing this product last couple of years. As a part of our ‘customer insight’ process we interacted with scores of clients to understand their stated and unstated needs and requirements. We realized there is no product to serve this set of construction companies. So we came up with a product which ensures ‘Uncompromised mechanized solution’ to grading work for these types of roads, which none of the current graders are able to serve.

Small and medium contractors, whom you target, have stressed balance sheets. What are your pricing and finance packages to help them?
First of all, most of these assets are not owned by these companies. They take it on rent and the rental companies have a lot of other types of construction equipment too. In terms of price itself, our grader landed cost at customer place is about just `35 lakh. At that price it is almost one third of a regular grader, whereas it does almost half the jobs of a regular grader. Even large contractors are telling us, instead of having one big grader they would like to have two of these, which will give them flexibility. We have shown the product to all banks and NBFCs who have approved this on their asset list.

Are you offering direct rentals through Mahindra CE?
We have a rental brand MCE Rental Services. A customer can dial and give his requirements, and they will take care of the rest.

What kind of disruptive technology is featured in this particular product?
I need to tell you about our technology from the point of view of the segment we are trying to address. To compare our technology with a full scale grader, you may not find a lot of difference. However as I said, we are addressing a segment which uses a jugaad grader, which is either a tractor attachment or a backhoe attachment, which can’t do the levelling properly with three different tyre sizes. Whether it is in terms of size with adjustable blade, which can move 180 degrees; whether it is in terms of optional additional fitments which are possible on this grader, which is not necessarily possible in every real size grader; we have lot of innovative things going in this machine. There are altogether about 15-16 new innovations we have introduced for which we have applied for patent rights.

Will you be exporting this product to emerging markets?
We have an international division focused on two geographies, South Asia and Africa, through them all our businesses try to sell their products. In construction equipment we already have largest BHL share in Nepal. We are getting into South Asia and Africa.

What kind of market share are you looking for your grader?
We are not looking at market share at all, because as I said, grader is a highly unrepresented segment. If you are talking about just bookings and inquiries we have, it could be more than 15 per cent of market share, but that surely is not our aspiration. We are here to provide a solution where we don’t even know what the industry size will be after 4-5 years.

How is your backhoe loader faring now?
As far as loader is concerned, we have carved a respectable market share, close to four percent. To be specific, we are already number four after JCB, Case, and CAT; and ahead of players like ACE, Escorts, and Terex.

Is there any new product on the design board?
We are developing several other products in CE in different verticals. We forayed the CE space with EarthMaster, followed by RoadMaster G75, and the third will be in concrete equipment vertical. These are some of the segments where we will be focusing. Between these segments you will see more of our products coming in.
We have come into this sector late, and hence whatever products/solutions from our side will not be a ‘Me Too’ product. Each and every product we launch will be innovative based on our knowledge of Indian market and our customer feedback.

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