Manufacturing Locally, Acting Globally- Alfa Laval (India) Limited

The company’s vision is to create better living conditions for people every day and its key areas of technology include heat transfer, separation and fluid handling. Alfa Laval products are recognized throughout the world today with sales in more than 100 countries. Alfa Laval came to India in 1937 and has been a key player in several Indian segments including pharmaceutical, oil and gas, energy, steel and metal, sugar, food processing, pulp and paper, distillery, edible oil processing, brewing, starch, effluent handling, inorganic and the marine industry.
Mr. Anantha Padmanabhan has been working with Alfa Laval for almost 35 years. After leaving India to manage the Middle East and African regions of the company in 1991, he returned to be appointed as the Managing Director of Alfa Laval (India) Limited and Cluster President for India, Middle East and Africa.
“It was a dramatic change,” he says when he came back to India from abroad.
“It was a great opportunity for me and even Alfa Laval India changed a lot in these years in terms of its competent manufacturing capability, its reach and its presence. That is what the best experience was for me when coming back to India. I could do something different from what I had learned outside the country.”
Alfa Laval’s range of products can be found in anything related to the manufacturing industry. With a huge investment in R&D, there are at least 25 to 30 product launches every year.
“We have a presence in everything ranging from capital equipment till nuclear power plants. We have core products and engineering systems and plans which cover the entire structure. But being a capital equipment company, the growth and development of the company, up to an extent, is our connected economic growth in the country. I am a sworn believer that any progressive company should grow faster than the economy. That is the way the company and its people will grow and that is how the development will happen in the organization. So there are plenty of opportunities in this country even during these difficult times.”
2019 was a difficult year for the economy, he states. The first two years after being appointed were very good, but in 2019 the economy started going southwards. Despite that, they were able to deliver positive growth for the company.
“2020 is a tougher year but we hope that we do better than the economy. But if you look at the future, the future is tremendous. There are a lot of fantastic opportunities out there.”
Delving into their key business divisions
The company is a major player in the food processing industry in the country for both core products and engineered systems. Other industries include biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries where they supply critical electric plants including equipment used for vaccine processing. Besides these, the general manufacturing industry, chemical industry, infrastructure-related industries and the alternate power industry are areas where the company is expecting growth.
“Another area where I expect to see an acceleration of growth is the defense industry. We supply critical equipment to the aerospace and defense industry.”