Robus India showcased its products for the third time at the IndiaCorr Expo. The company’s director Prem Vishwakarma, was initially apprehensive about being a part of the first exhibition for the corrugation and folding carton industry after the Covid-19 pandemic. He voiced his concerns, “Before the exhibition, we were very afraid whether we will get a good response here – but we participated nevertheless as we wanted to showcase our braille machine, Braille 850, after its launch. In India, we are the only ones providing this kind of machine after Bobst.”
The American Foundation for the Blind defines Braille as ‘a system of raised dots that can be read with the fingers by people who are blind or who have low vision.’ The tactile writing system, prepared by embossing paper with raised dots, can be read with naked eyes by people with good vision. With technological advancements around the globe and increased sensitivity to challenged and aged consumers, Braille is slowly becoming compulsory for the packaging of all kinds of pharma and some food items – especially for printing expiry dates.
Vishwakarma adds, “Internationally, many people are doing Braille work but it is not complied with as an international standard as yet. In the Braille 850 and Braille 650 machines, we can get all the parameters such as accuracy to match the international standards. Only two companies are selling this kind of machine globally. The special feature of this machine is that it is entirely ‘Make in India.’”
Installation peak during Covid-19 pandemic
Covid-19 was an unpredictable period for the entire world. Even so, in some industries, the pandemic period can be viewed with an optimistic lens. Before the dawn of the global crisis, everyone was just going through the daily grind – just following others with little time to pause, think and reflect. The pandemic provided large sections of the demographic a much-needed stoppage to break off and introspect. It gave us time to think about what is absolutely necessary and what is not required.
According to Vishwakarma, the Covid-19 pandemic turned out to be a period of immense growth for Robus with 119 installations in the past two years. He further states, “We have been able to install these many machines as people got the time to think about what investments they needed to make. We did a lot of social media during the Covid-19 pandemic to make our customers realize the need to prioritize their investments. The customer’s requirement and investment margin should match. If it is not matching, the enterprise will be in trouble in the near future. You can see a lot of big companies are in trouble due to the wrong investments. Our customers are slowly discovering that Robus is the right investment for them.”
Robus Unexpected response at IndiaCorr Expo 2021
The Robus India team received an unanticipated response at the IndiaCorr Expo 2021. On the first day, the company received orders for four machines. And by the third day, they had already sold seven machines. Vishwakarma shares, “We were really afraid about the response and were not even thinking that we would sell a single machine. But we have received orders for seven machines in the first two days of the event. We booked orders for three more machines on the last day which took our tally to ten. Getting orders for 10 machines in 3 days is a very big achievement for us as an organization.”
Robus India says it has installed a total of 289 machines in India and other countries till now to 82 customers. Vishwakarma reveals the company’s USP makes it outshine competitors, “We are getting repeat orders because of service, commitment, and price. Our first customer, who had purchased a folder gluer from us, is still buying all his machines from us till this day. We are really proud of that. We don’t have a large sales team but we have a sizeable service team.” The company gets more than 80% of its orders from word of mouth references from its existing customers.
On his perspective on expansion, Vishwakarma reveals, “We never plan ahead like that. We work on the basis of truth – we take very small (profit) margins, we are providing very good service without any commitment failures, after-sales. Even two years after purchasing a machine, we are providing the same quality of service to our customers as on the first day, post-purchase.
“We want to manufacture a die-cutting machine in India now and we want to build maximum machines in the country. We want to fulfil PM Narendra Modi’s dream of ‘Make in India’ come true.”
