We traditionally have a big presence in pick-and-carry crane in Australia and New Zealand

– Kieran Hegarty

President, Terex Corporation

How do you look at the market for FR-17 pickup and carry cranes in India? Why have you timed the launch for this time?

We are very positive about India over the long term. And that is why we continue to expand our Hosur campus. If you look across Material Processing (MP) division, we have a very broad portfolio where we are enjoying a high market share in our traditional markets like Europe, Australia and North America. But we have had a very positive experience in India with our equipment over the years. They were one of our market leaders and we just want to bring the best of our portfolio as believe that for us to be successful in India, we need to be manufacturing local and we need to support local. So, with our widespread products, we are very successful in India and the rest of the world.

How is Franna F17 different from other competitors in this space?

If you look at the Franna design, there are some adaptions in terms of componentry for the Indian market. Franna is the pioneer. They came up with the concept many years ago in Australia. It’s one of the most respected cranes and also has high quality, high safety and that is a big factor for us. So, the safety of our products as well as the operators who use them is absolutely critical. We believe that our USP is going to be upon our quality and safety, performance.

India being a price centric market, how do you maintain this equilibrium between cost and quality?

I appreciate that India is a price sensitive market as it is a huge market. But we believe that we are going to have different buyers that are motivated by different factors. Some are motivated by price. But over the long term, we see all markets tread the same way. Ultimately, it’s not about the initial buying price, it’s about the total cost of the ownership and over the life cycle of the machine. Because these are assets that somebody doesn’t buy for a couple of months. They only own these assets for over many years. So how do we support them in terms of spare parts availability and in the design and how reliable in the quality they are? Our sale point is that we make safe products. You can’t put a price on safety. So, that is where we have positioned ourselves. We passionately believe that while it may not be the lowest price, we have the best value. Value is what matters in the long run.

Which continent has been drawing more demand for your products?

It depends on the product line. We traditionally have a big presence in pick-and-carry crane in Australia and New Zealand. Obviously, we have always eyed the Indian market that has an enormous potential. Which is why we are bringing Franna to India. We work global. We have a big position in screen in Europe and North America and also India. For Tower Cranes, we are pegging Europe and North America, Rough Terrain Cranes which we have in Indonesia and India, we are also pegging Europe. So, it depends on the product line. I think Asia with India at the heart also has a good market. There is a confidence building in India which is good to see. I think India is really going to come on and leave some prints even faster than one can’t stop in these last  10-15 years.

Are there any challenges?

There’s always challenges. There’s competition. In the short term there is a lot of challenges in the global markets. Europe, in particular, has been really impacted by high inflation. That’s something that a lot of European companies and businesses haven’t had the data for many years. So, there is a fairly unique inflationary environment in Europe, its particularly problematic at the moment, and there is also talk of potential recession in Europe as well which often follows periods of high inflation as well. So that to me also could accelerate Terex’s need to be much more global because we want to have different markets in different regions at the end of the day. We need a global spread to be able to offset.

What are your products on display during BAUMA Germany?

At BAUMA Germany, we are actually not going to BAUMA as Terex or as a single stand which we historically did. Our individual product lines are going, power screen for example we have the full range of Crushing and Screening products. We will be introducing the electric models and they will be on the stand with their dealer partner in Germany. As Terex, we are not going in a single stand entity.

Coming back to Franna, what’s your future outlook for Franna?

We have a very positive outlook for Franna and our advancement in Franna in India is also for penetrating the Indian market. If you look at pick-and-carry cranes, they are only sold in Australia and India. But if you go around the rest of the world, they’re not as similar. It is a concept that is not well promoted. So, we hope that we take share based on our quality and our safety of our products in India. We also have an opportunity to really create a market, I believe that if this is a good tool in India or if it is a good tool in Australia, I cannot understand why it is not a good tool in the other markets. So, I think we have a real opportunity to try to create a market, but it is going to take a lot of effort. If it exists in India and if it exists in Australia, why does it not exist somewhere else. So that’s our focus.

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