With the advent of 21st century, densely populated countries like India & China in South Asia have become the potential market of booming technology. High aspiration of young population is increasingly putting pressure on infrastructure leading to major focus in POWER SECTOR development. With the announcement of smart cities, industry expansion, IT enabled services the country is expected to produce 40000 MW power pool to maintain the pace of growth. This has led to growing demand of distribution power sector & boost to the manufacturing of substation equipment & services.
Equally due to growing potential many players have tried to enter this sector of power product manufacturing but due to electro intensive application few managed to survive. The switchgear manufacturing industry has been shrinking with more numbers of players leaving the market sector. The greatest challenges posed by the companies in this sector are frequently upgrade of specifications mostly from government sector, crunch in financial sector made tough for local players to stay in the business. Due to high volatility Customers fear to allow NEW entries comfortable in the sector mostly relying on BIG GIANT MNC corporates.
Pascal choose to take up this tough challenge in 2007 based out in West Bengal, Kolkata once
renowned for Switchgear hub in British & post-independence era. The company, since its inception in this product manufacturing segment in 2009, has faced multiple challenges to get approved in government tenders, set up factory, collate depleting skilled workforce and create a platform to ensure the sector survives and contributes to the INDIA SHINING dream. Anant Saraf, the company director believes although the market has grown in the last five years, majority of them is due to government schemes under the Make in India drive and initiative, smart cities expansion, alternative energy production and capacity expansion of Mines & metals. Pascal Switch care was started by two brothers Ashok Kumar Saraf & Arun Khemka in 2007 and has been taken forward by the next generation Anant Saraf, Abhishek Khemka & Shreyas Saraf.
Overcoming Challenges through Dedication
Even with high resistance of operations and profitability, Pascal has been able to shine in the market segment given the high dedication of the entire team. Anant cheerfully mentions, “Our current client base is more or less all the state electricity boards either directly or through various EPC projects players.” In his words, “Luckily we have good & effective people to guide us through and we meet the expectations and challenges.”
The company starting with just one product in 2009 has established a good clientele all over India. Moreover, Anant mentions, “In last 10 years we have successfully catered to CESC, PGCIL, WBSETCL, DOP - Sikkim with control and relay panel up to 132 and 220KV also.” Their major strength is the in-house technical team backing the company at all sectors of operations. Starting from 30 people, Pascal currently employs about 250 people.
In last 10 years we have successfully catered to CESC, PGCIL, WBSETCL, DOP – Sikkim with control and relay panel up to 132 and 220KV
Future Prospects
As Anant said, the company has realized that expansion in both terms of product and customer base is the key to survive and expand due to limited scope for the beginners in this market sector. Today the company’s vision stands to ensure growth in product line catering the entire range of medium voltage 33 KV to 3.3 KV across Government and private sectors, Process industries, renewable energy, pharma and automotive sector. He mentions that the company is moving towards SCADA integration expertise and adds another feather to the hat in near future.
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