Can you please tell us the journey of Hager in India?
Pascal: Hager group is present in India for more than 20 years. We worked together with a partner for almost 15 years keeping intact the Hager brand and identity. For the last five years, we are now an independent entity and have increased our portfolio from modular protection devices to providing complete solutions in residential and commercial segments.
What are the focus areas in India for Hager?
Atulya: Hager worldwide is focused on residential and commercial buildings and so, it is in India. When we say commercial building, it means large hotels, IT/ ITES buildings, commercial offices and residential buildings. As of now, we provide complete solutions for these segments.
What are the products and services offered by the company, particularly, catering to the power sector?
Atulya: As our focus is buildings, whether it is solutions for energy efficiency, energy distribution or building automation, we can cater to complete solutions within a building. Power sector is the enabler, but what drives our growth is buildings.
With the government of India’s focus on infrastructure sector and smart cities, how does Hager see this as an opportunity?
Atulya: The way we look at it, any smart city will have buildings and we need to look at how to make the buildings smarter using our solutions of automation, energy efficiency or energy distribution. Energy distribution is one aspect, which gets overlooked. The cause of the fire many a time could be poor distribution of energy, which could initiate a short circuit. So, giving the right energy distribution solution is a must, and Hager being a leading solution provider can be the correct choice.
Do you have any R&D Facilities in India?
Pascal: Hager group is a family business which is more than 60 years old, with majority of employees in France and Germany. Hence, major R&D is done in Europe, having said that, we are making a competence center in India to address local needs. We already have a manufacturing facility and are tying up with local partners to address local needs.
The government of India has taken up the initiative of ‘Make in India. Do you have plans to support this initiative?
Atulya: Hager was in fact one of the first European companies to take up this initiative. We have set up a plant in Pune which is completely owned and operated by Hager. It is completely as per Hager global standards and gives the feeling of a European facility. This plant primarily caters to India requirements and if we have capacity, we will cater to South East Asia and Middle East markets.
What are the technological innovations that have been brought in your portfolio?
Pascal: We design very high standard quality products, connected to protection of human life. We make MCB’s to ACB’s which are designed in Europe. We bring more initiatives by building the local competence centre with high tech industrial facilities, localize as much as possible to meet the customer expectations and meet the local standards like BIS. We are also exploring more solutions like electrical charging stations, which will be a big change in supply of energy at office or at home. This will bring a change as once everyone is at home at 6:00 pm and will want to charge their car it will be impossible with current infrastructure. So, you need to master the technology on how you will charge your car, how to manage the grid and this is where Hager is working with different car manufacturers not only to manage the charging station, but also how to interface with the grid. This is one technology innovation.
We have just acquired a company Energy Storage to design solutions where you have a standalone solution for your villa. You store your energy through solar and use when you require it. Excess energy is put on the grid. So, you have your independent home solution. So, from protection to storage, we can provide the complete solutions
Atulya: As far as India is concerned, Hager has automation solutions based on KNX solutions. We can provide automation for independent villas using these solutions. The second thing, we have launched is our own range of wiring accessories called as insysta, designed in France, engineered in Germany and Made in India. This is a customized solution to cater to the Indian customer needs.
What kind of advice you want to give your potential clients?
Atulya: Our first commitment to any of our customers is that we will provide solutions of high quality and reliability. When a customer buys Hager, he does not have to worry about safety. Hager solutions will always meet the highest quality, safety and reliability standards.
Do you want to introduce any new solutions like charging stations?
Atulya: Our focus is shifting from products to solutions. So, our focus will remain on how we can offer more and more solutions in the same building.
Pascal: Supplying a charging station is not our objective. We want to give the complete end to end solution. So, charging stations supply is not the end of the story. This is connected to national initiatives supported by the government and requires the necessary infrastructure to supply the energy. We want to offer solutions and not only supply products. Today, our priority is energy distribution and automation and then we move on to solutions, which are like energy storage and charging stations.
In India while providing these solutions, what kind of challenges are you facing?
Pascal: We are a premium brand, when a customer is ready to buy a Mercedes or BMW car, he is ready to invest in premium. The challenge is to find the right project where the customer can understand the value that we can offer.
The other challenge is to find skilled and qualified people. We do train them but it may not be enough. Howsoever good, the solution maybe if the product is not installed properly, it does not work. If the job is done very well, then the solution is safe and reliable.
Atulya: To overcome the challenges of skilled manpower, we run many programs to train electricians and our customers on how to ensure complete safety. Safety will always remain our focus.
