In an endeavour to continuously upgrade services and penetrate deeper into markets, Intertek, having presence in over 110 countries around the globe, is a company on the upward projectile. India is among its important growth markets and every effort is underway to provide high quality services and testing facilities to the industry. In pursuance of this, the company recently launched its relocated lab and office at Kanjumarg (West) Mumbai.
The Intertek team from all over India and Hong Kong including Calvin Yam, President of Asia & Global Textiles for Consumer Goods; Harsh Chopra, Country Manager of Intertek India; Dilip Gianchandani, Regional Director for Consumer Goods; and Amrut K. Desai, Regional Director for Consumer Goods Africa & Middle East along with other core Intertek team members were present at the launch.
[bleft]Intertek India looking at opening labs in all major Special Economic Zones
Aggressive penetration into domestic retail in coming 2 years
Envisages double digit growth in coming 2 years[/bleft]
Strategically, Mumbai still remains the most important location of Intertek’s operations in India. This new state-of-the-art laboratory is responsible for servicing the entire Western region (Mumbai, Wapi, Sholapur, Ahmedabad, Surat, Indore, etc.) – which has a very strong textile base besides the fact that all major Indian brands and retailers are parked in Mumbai such as Future Group, Madura Garments, Forbes, SKNL and Raymonds, to mention a few. Calvin Yam explains, “Intertek started its India operations in 1993 in Mumbai, the commercial centre of India, with over 10,000 industries around it and a strong textile base. Then we moved on to Delhi, Gurgaon, Bangalore and Tirupur. Earlier we were operating from Godrej’s premises in Mumbai and now we have our very own space.”
India is the sixth largest country of operation for Intertek and is undeniably a growing market for the company. Points out Dilip Gianchandani, “The domestic market in India is evolving in regards to quality, safety and environment issues thanks to amplified Government regulations and interventions regarding the quality and safety of goods and also the recent entry of well known global brands in India in the last 2-3 years. Indian brand/retailers now realize that the Indian consumer has tasted international quality and the awareness level is certainly growing with regards to safety and other compliances. As a result, the domestic players have to follow a similar path as their international counterparts to compete and remain in the race.”
Intertek has over 6,000 companies from a number of different industries as its clients in India. Intertek enjoys playing a role as an enabler in terms of improving the ability to market one’s products. “We provide various technical training and consultation services. We share up-to-date technical information with our clients and assist them in developing or revising quality assurance programmes and product specifications along with improving their manufacturing processes,” shares Calvin Yam.
Across India, Intertek’s business has grown exponentially over the past year, with more than 44 labs and offices in total, rising from 30 earlier. The number of employees has also increased to 1050 – more than three times that was a year ago. Says Dilip Gianchandani, “We want our services to reach the very doorstep of each and every client. We are now targeting to open more Intertek labs at major SEZs across India to essentially have quick testing facilities at close quarters. These particular labs will manage those testing requirements which are quick, while samples that involve chemicals or more advanced testing can be brought to other centralized Intertek labs for closer analysis.”
Intertek today boasts a good market share in India. In Testing they have 30% share, for CSR related services they have 40% and in regular Audit/Inspection services the share is about 30%. In the coming two years, Intertek management is aiming for an impressive double digit growth rate.
Once keeping a low profile, Intertek India in the last two years has aggressively invested both time and effort to build its image and presence regionally. As a direct result, they have been successful in grabbing a significant percentage of market share in all areas of operation. Ironically, while the world is unhappy about economic slow down, Intertek has actually shown a commendable growth not only in India but globally as well. On being asked about the world economic scenario and its impact on the company’s business, Calvin Yam said, “When the economy is bullish, quality is important and when economy is at its low then quality becomes even more important.”
