India is on the threshold of large-scale potato mechanisation CU LTIVATION AND TECHNOLOGY duce have led us to starting our own production here’, Smit explains to the nearly four hundred people present at the official opening of the business. ‘From the very first day that we’ve been active in India, we’ve been making machinery of exactly the same quality as that made in the Netherlands. To reach that level, we’ve invested a great deal in training our staff. We’ve brought people to the Netherlands and vice versa. It’s our aim to also create an Allround culture in India whereby, just as in the Netherlands, our communication is easily accessible for everyone. This requires a change in the way of thinking and acting, but we’ve done it’, Smit tells us. To achieve this, Allround has not only invested in training its staff, but also in providing housing. Adjacent to the factory, suitable staff housing has been built where fifty people can eat, sleep and shower. Staff who live in the surrounding area are picked up and taken home by the company bus. To keep its staff happy, the company pays medical insurance for every employee and school fees if they have children. ‘Education is very important in the rural areas in India. Many children don’t go to school, which is why we as Allround also want to invest in the future’, Smit explains. During the tour around the factory, he shows how the employees first spraygalvanise the steel in the factory. This metal spraying of the blasted material with a zinc-aluminium alloy ensures that the machines won’t rust. ‘This means that we can sell our machinery on the Indian as well as any other world market’, Smit explains. Setting up distribution centres According to Sales Director Satvinder Singh, Allround India has a successful presence in the country. ‘In the coming months, we will deliver ten projects of at least 5,000 tons of cooling storage systems in the various potato cultivation areas in India. With an annual turnover of about 8 million euros, that’s a very good result’, says Singh. Smit adds that this means the Indian site handles nearly half the total turnover of the Dutch company. Singh further explains that an Indian customer who wants to invest in a cooling storage system has to deal with many suppliers. The knowledge of the customer is usually very basic and so it’s difficult to know who to trust or not. ‘We aim to be the customer’s only contact point and to bring all involved companies together. Not as one company but as a partnership. In India in particular, there are many consultants who all take their margins wherever they can. This is what we call ‘fast interest’. As a result, projects often become very expensive and the after sales are also not always properly arranged. Even with the 35 percent subsidy that growers receive when investing in storage, the prices are too high. Our core business is the supply of both ventilation technology and machinery. Machinery that we don’t manufacture ourselves is made by our partners, but we facilitate all this which means we only charge the costs without adding an extra margin. In this way, we can sell sharply-priced, complete projects. This means that we have become a turnkey supplier’, Singh explains. ‘This is the first step towards the development of distribution centres. At this moment, food is still mainly sold via local markets and from there to the shops. This logistical system is the reason why up to 40 percent of food in India is lost in the food supply chain. To reduce this waste, in collaboration with the Dutch Embassy, It’s Allround’s aim to also create its own culture in India whereby, just as in the Netherlands, staff communicates easily with each other. Potato World 2017 • number 1 19 Pagina 18
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