What is the company’s current product portfolio? What are the new products and offerings?
VEGA India Level and Pressure Measurement Pvt. Ltd. is wholly owned subsidiary of VEGA Grieshaber KG, Germany, which is one of the world’s leading supplier of level and pressure measurement instrumentation. VEGA India, with two decades of experience in the Indian market and its establishment since 2011, is able to adhere to the global standards of VEGA group through experienced sales & service team and a state of the art manufacturing facility. We offer numerous level and pressure measuring instruments. Be it liquid, paste, powder or bulk solid media, our products help in getting accurate measurements to plan for better process parameters. With VEGA’s trusted equipments numerous plants across globe can have automation of various process stages with maintenance free operations. Every sensor that gets manufactured in our facilities goes through stringent quality checks. As a brand, we offer simple solutions to complex processes that give maximum value to our customers.
The product portfolio consists of all the possible measurement principles for every industry to match suitability to their processes.
New products, new opportunities:
Few years back, VEGA revolutionized non-contact continuous level measurement solution with the introduction of
the first Radar Level Measurement transmitters based on the 80 GHz technology viz. VEGAPULS 69 (one sensor for bulk solids) & VEGAPULS 64 (one sensor liquids), which have already made a mark in the process measurement industry. Their superior beam angles help get a reliable and accurate measurement in difficult process conditions.
With the stupendous success of these two instruments, last year VEGA launched more 80 GHz based Radar Level Transmitters viz. VEGAPULS (11/21/31) with cable connection compartment and VEGAPULS C (11/21/22/23) with fixed cable connections. These sensors, with their advanced features and enhanced capabilities, are considered to be better than ultrasonic sensors.
Also, new additions have been done in our pressure transmitters VEGABAR series (with metallic and ceramic measuring cells) and point level switches VEGAPOINT series (compact and tube versions). These new sensors have a luminous advantage with 3600 status indication that helps understand the status of the process that is being monitored at first glance itself. These new series of sensors are especially designed for price sensitive applications found in water and waste water treatment industry, food & beverages and pharmaceutical industries and are especially relevant to our domestic needs as these are fairly maintenance free.
How has been the experience so far in the Indian market?
VEGA initially operated through sales partner in Indian market. However, with the kind of response received for VEGA’s devices, VEGA India
Level and Pressure Measurement Pvt. Ltd. was established in May 2011. Since then, VEGA India has been growing at CAGR of about 25% while the average YoY growth in turnover has been about 30%. The response is a result of the world class instrument solutions VEGA provides combined with the quality pre and post orders services provided by our sales and service professionals, which are at par with VEGA’s global values.
We have been very successful in delivering our products across industries, like chemical (API, Solvents, Pesticides), food & beverages, pharmaceuticals, oil & gas, petrochemicals, steel, cement, power, water and wastewater treatment industries. Our main products that are preferred in domestic markets include Radars for non-contact continuous level measurement (VEGAPULS SERIES), Guided Wave Radars for level and interface measurement (VEGAFLEX series ), Vibrating Switches (VEGASWING, VEGAVIB and VEGAWAVE series) Capacitive measurement devices (VEGACAL and VEGACAP series 60) followed by Process Pressure instruments (VEGABAR & VEGADIFF series) and Radiation-based instruments for level and density measurement (PROTRAC series).
With our latest devices in VEGAPULS and VEGAPULS C series, we are aiming at replacing the ultrasonic applications mainly in water and wastewater industries that are cost-sensitive. We believe that ultrasonic was yesterday. Our latest 80 GHz radar sensors can successfully replace such ultrasonic devices as they give reliable measurement to overcome all the challenges faced by customers who use conventional Ultrasonic Level Measurement. Similarly, our new VEGABAR and VEGAPOINT series with luminous ring indicators makes it rather easy for end-users to monitor processes from a distance. In addition, we offer Bluetooth configuration for most of our devices; such wireless communication provides better accessibility especially in clean rooms, in harsh environment conditions and in hazardous areas. Another important offer that has gone very well with our domestic customers is the warranty period of 24 month for every device, which is irrespective of the quantum purchased. This is our promise to customers to give equal importance and maintain same quality service across customer base.
What has been the impact of Covid-19 on the company’s business?
The current pandemic has almost stopped the wheels of entire world, and India is no exception to it. The nature of the pandemic has compelled all of us to remain socially isolated and hence, it has definitely caused a negative impact on most of the businesses. Many businesses have stopped their working for over months already. Manufacturing industry contributes almost 20% to India’s GDP. However, since the start of the year, the signs of recession were visible especially with Automotive industry plunging by great extent. Situation has been compounded by the lockdown imposed due to COVID-19.
Our prediction is that, it would take roughly 2 quarters for the current situation to stabilize. At present we are already experiencing a decline in the inflow of order income as customers are buying only if they absolutely need, the import is taking longer periods than usual, exchange rate has gone up, credit period is getting extended and many of our customers have already started revisiting & revising their project budgets. The major challenge will be maintaining a well balance in cash inflow and outflow. We are also looking into our business’s cost centers and revising our strategies in order to lower the operational costs and overheads.
What are the future plans of the company? What are some of the strategies being looked at to mitigate the impact of Covid-19?
Having said the negative impacts of COVID-19 and lockdown thereby, I would like to stress that VEGA India has been way ahead of its time in terms of establishing the e-contact with their customers. During the development of our compact latest devices in VEGAPULS, VEGABAR and VEGAPOINT series, an extensive thought was given to a simple assembly and operation. Many of our services associate have been in touch with our customers via online applications. All the parameters can be set quickly via our VEGA-Tools app or also through wireless communication via smartphone or tablet. As the customer visits have dried up, we are making use of special myVEGA personal information platform, through which customers can access all the required information relating to VEGA products such as 2D/3D drawings of configured instruments, product documentation and access codes for VEGA sensors. We also use TeamViewer application whenever required, so that we can tackle any problem remotely (as social distancing becomes norm for now).
We have also conducted one-one/group 
training sessions with our customers. The response so far has been encouraging. Just before the lockdown, we had equipped our sales team with demo back packs, which includes all the latest devices. Our sales team has been successfully demonstrating working of these devices to our customers using media that are available at home (for example, oil, honey, wheat flour etc.). Such home-based simulations, though don’t exactly reflect the working conditions, give our customers an overview of how the instruments can be configured and used.
Soon, we are planning to have live demonstration sessions with our customers soon, wherein we will actually show the working of our various devices on industry demo models.
What are some of the emerging opportunity areas in India?
Our focus, going forward, would be to build the awareness on use of advanced measurement technologies in our focused industries. In addition, we will also create awareness about our online platforms as well as other features of our devices like wireless communication. As COVID-19 has obligated many companies and individuals to explore online territories, we are sure that with our pre- existing online platform as well as features of our devices like wireless communication, we are going to overcome many challenges posed by COVID-19 and emerge as a leader in providing new-edged technology in Indian market.