Escorts JCB's plans

By Preeti Mishra

BANGALORE, OCT. 4. Escorts JCB has allocated substantial funds to invest in its Indian operations.

This will be utilised to upgrade its manufacturing facilities in terms of infrastructure and technology. EJCB plans to indigenously manufacture several of its new construction equipment products after the upgradation of its manufacturing base.

The Rs. 471 crore company is a joint venture between the U.K.- based J. C. Bramford Excavators and the Escorts group.

``We have earmarked funds of about Rs. 350 crores including Rs. 150 crores to bring in sensitisation in the Indian manufacturing facility. This will allow EJCB to manufacture products such as Robot Skid Steer and Tracked Excavator indigenously instead of importing them from the U.K.," EJCB India operations marketing manager, Mr. Tom Cornell, told this correspondent.

EJCB manufactures 3,000 machines at its existing facilities. After the production base has been improved, the company expects to manufacture 5,000 machines over the next three years. Ninety per cent of its product range is manufactured locally.

EJCB has also embarked on `hands on' training programme, a new initiative to provide hands-on experience in operating JCB machines to operators, dealers, distributors and sales managers. The programme will also provide marketing training to its sales managers.

According to Mr. Cornell, 70 per cent of its sales are from the Southern and Western regions.

In order to increase its existing market share of 80 per cent, the company will launch a road-show to showcase various products from EJCB later this month. The road-shows will cover Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, Mumbai and Baroda.

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