28 February, 2012

(L & R) Mr. Ravi Bansal & Mr. J.S Gupta from Ajex & Turner Wire Dies Co. (In Center) Mr. Keith Glossop – Technical Director, Batoyle Freedom Group

Carrying the legacy of 135 years Batoyle Freedom group is one of the UK’s largest independent lubricant manufacturing companies, situated in Huddersfields which is historically known as the base of textile industry. The family owned company started as the specialist lubricant supplier to the textile industry and after a period of time they decided to diversify within the lubricant field to serve different industries like Automotive, Glass, Industrial and Tube & Wire industries. About 40 years ago the owner of the company developed the philosophy and a policy for the company to develop specialist lubricants used in production processing of wire drawing, tube drawing, glass moulding etc. The idea was to manufacture engineering lubricants which are actually used in production process. In 1991 the family ownership ran out as it was the management buyout by three directors and one of the managers in the company. Batoyle now exports to over 50 countries worldwide with their strong network of distributors. During the visit to India team WCI had an interaction with Mr. Keith Glossop, Technical Director, Batoyle Freedom Group about Batoyle plans for India. Excerpts

Outlining the plans for the Indian market Mr. Keith said “The thing for which we are here is to deliver value to the Indian wire and cable industry. It’s the technology and experience of 4 decades that we bring with us in the form of being a major supplier to some of the sophisticated markets in the world. We hope to be able to bring that experience and share it with Indian companies. Undoubtedly I think the demand in terms of technology and product quality will grow and hopefully we can help people through that. Delivering high performance is the key requisite for any industrial lubricant as it can have a significant impact on the quality of the wire drawn vis-a-vis efficiency in terms of production and cost saving. So, the lubricant is absolutely critical. Products and technology evolve over the time. So, the main key aspect is research & development of new products and technology with enhanced performance. But, another thing that is important is the level of the service, it’s absolutely vital to provide high level of technical support to the customer and that’s one reason we were historically not present in the Indian market.”

Highlighting the importance of presence in the Indian market he stated “India is the developing market and in another five to ten years it’s going to change massively in terms of its technology requirements, as the country’s infrastructure develops and standard of living grows. The demand for wire and cable industry and also the demand for us as suppliers will also grow. We are very excited about the opportunity in the Indian market. We needed a partner to be able to work here and that’s why we appointed Ajex & Turner Wire Dies Company as our Indian agency. Their philosophy is very similar to ours i.e. to provide high level of the support to the customer.”

On the expectation from the relationship with Batoyle group Mr. J. S Gupta – (Ajex & Turner Wire Dies Co.) said “Indian wire and cable industry is growing exponentially and emerging next to the China. The government is committed to supply power to the people, which will offer massive growth to wire & cable industry too. Besides in lubricants it is more important to consider the effective cost of applying the lubricants and not the absolute cost. Considering this we are sure Batoyle lubricants will add great value to the Indian companies.”