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'We Have Drawn Up Aggressive Plans for the Future'

Kolkata-based BOC India Limited, part of the Linde Group will be turning 75 next year. The company has drawn up aggressive plans for the future. It will invest in new projects, as well as towards development of infrastructure, process changes, people development. Express Healthcare spoke to Srikumar Menon, Managing Director, BOC India Limited about the recent initiatives and future plans of the company. Excerpt:

Srikumar Menon

BOC India has announced an investment plan of Rs 10 billion for the next three years to fund its expansion drive. Please share with us the main projects that will be taken up during this period.

Yes, I am happy to tell you that BOC India has won a number of new tonnage contracts this year. We will be supplying industrial gases to Steel Authority of India Limited's brownfield expansion at Rourkela, to Jindal Stainless, Kalinganagar as well as to a few other large customers. We are also on course on our merchant plant project at Dehradun.

The company, it is learnt is also investing on creating infrastructure for manufacturing, storing and pipeline distribution. Can you elaborate on the same?

We follow a fairly diverse and customised business model, supplying to large customers through over-the-fence pipelines, to customers with a somewhat lower, yet large enough requirement, through supplies in cryogenic tankers where the liquid product is stored at the customers' sites in vacuum insulated vessels, as well as compressed gases in cylinders to smaller customers. We are working towards enhancing our capabilities further, in all these modes of supply.

Safe and timely distribution and delivery of gases are critical components of your business. How do you plan to strengthen it further?

BOC India has always been at the forefront of safety, both in manufacturing as well as distribution processes. Our vehicle fleet consists of more than 500 dedicated trucks and tankers. At BOC India, a dedicated team works round-the-clock to ensure that each one of these adheres to the strongest safety norms, in most cases, these norms are well beyond what is required under statutory safety standards. Our vehicles always have two drivers and a driver is not allowed to work for more than eight hours a day. We are investing in state-of-the art delivery vehicles from Volvo, even though it is an expensive proposition. We already have a centralised control room that monitors driver behavior, real time, for all our bulk supply vehicles. From a safety point of view, it is an investment in the right direction. We will continue to develop on our strength, going forward.

As we all know that the global economy is passing through difficult times, will it in anyway affect the growth projections or profitability of BOC India Limited in the current fiscal as major clients of the company have either shelved, curtailed or postponed their projects? What kind of figures do you expect to touch by the end of this fiscal?

Yes, just like everyone else, BOC India, too, is feeling the heat. However, our large, long-term contracts provide enough protection in times like these. Having said that, I must also mention that our business is all about partnering with our customers and in difficult times, we stand by our customers. As far as our performance for this fiscal is concerned, at this point in time, we are reasonably satisfied with what we have achieved and are hopeful that we will be able to continue this trend in the future.

BOC India is regarded as an undisputed leader in the field of medical gases. What has been the share of medical gases to the total income of the company and how it has been growing?

The healthcare business is a small, but very important part of our business. Given the critical and sensitive nature of healthcare services, we do allot top priority to our healthcare customers. Special care is taken at every level of the value chain, to ensure the highest levels of purity and timely delivery for healthcare customers. We also leverage the wide product portfolio available with The Linde Group, to ensure we always deliver cutting edge technology and a wider product range to the customer. It is this focus that has earned us the leadership position in this market.

What has been the response from the healthcare institutions of the country and especially from the Eastern Region?

We have strong relationships with hospitals and other healthcare institutions across the country and we have cherished and built them for over seven decades now. We understand our social obligation as the country's premier healthcare gases provider and work closely with our customers in different cities. Our relationship with healthcare institutions in the eastern region is and will always be special. This may be because, in India, our corporate office is in Kolkata and this gives us the opportunity to work closely with the healthcare fraternity in this part of the country. Healthcare specialists, too, have worked together with us enlightening us on the finer points of medical gases delivery systems like, anaesthesilogy, critical care, sleep apnea etc.

BOC India has been marketing a slew of products to cater to the emerging home-care segment in India. What has been the response to these products from the Indian consumers?

Currently, we have very few equipment in the homecare segment. However, we are a dominant player in the homecare gases market. In fact, in select cities, we also have a delivery service, called Oxyline™ that delivers pure medical oxygen, right at the patient's doorstep. The company is evaluating the potential of the homecare equipment market and is reviewing plans of focusing on this segment in a more serious way.

Please share your future plans.

Next year, BOC India will turn 75! I can assure you, never again, will you see a more enthusiastic and passionate 75-year old. It is a happy position to be in, to have an order book that would make any professional team proud. We have drawn up aggressive plans for the future. As you already know, we are investing heavily in new projects, as well as towards development of infrastructure, process changes, people development etc. We will continue these endeavors in the future, as we evolve into a high-performing, customer-focused, process-driven organisation.