Today, Sandeep Singh, Managing Director, Tata Hitachi Construction Machinery Company Private Limited, has set his eyes on the wheeled equipment segment. Of course, before doing that, he has been working hard to strengthen the Company's position in the tracked excavator segment where it has a substantial market share. And while Tata Hitachi has maintained its leadership position in that segment for a fairly long time, when Sandeep Singh joined the Company in August 2015 as the MD, it was going through a very challenging time. In fact, the overall market itself had been down for many years. But Singh and his team turned around the Company successfully and are now looking at newer frontiers. In an exclusive interview with The Machinist, Singh - a veteran of more than three decades - shares his journey with us touching upon its different aspects.

Maintaining leadership
He starts by explaining how the Company is maintaining its market leadership position. According to Singh, Tata Hitachi has somewhere around 37 percent market share in the hydraulic excavators segment. "In fact, we have been hovering between 36 percent to 38 percent market share for the last two to three years. We have a range of equipment from two tonnes to two hundred tonnes." From two tonnes to twenty tonnes - mini and mid range - of excavators are managed by Tata Hitachi's dealership. "Beyond that, the Company manages it on its own. Of course, its 80 percent of business comes from up to 20 tonnes machines.

"Our regional team, our branch office team and our dealers play a very important role. There is a very strong connect between Tata Hitachi and dealers as well as between our dealers and our customers. That is helping us build a very strong relationship. It is clearly visible in the fact that 50 percent of our sales is repeat sales. If 50 percent of your customers are coming back to you then that is a very good equation. That is on our sales part," he shares.

The second part is the quality of the machines - the actual products! "I think we have done very well on that front. Both Tata and Hitachi complement each other in terms of quality. We have very strong manufacturing processes and very strong vendor network. We have a very strong engagement with our vendors. It is a continuous process of improvement but I think we are doing a very good job," he says.

(Continiued on next page)