Pune-based HRS Process system offers innovative and cost effective heat transfer solutions offers its solution to various sectors. Its 25 per cent of the business comes from pharma sector, which is seeing a healthy growth. V Gokuldas, Managing Director, HRS Process Systems in an interaction with Usha Sharma, discusses the company’s business strategies and future plans
What trend do you see in the heat transfer solutions market and how rapidly it is growing in India and abroad?
Heat exchangers are one of the basic process equipment in any industry ranging from pharmaceutical, chemical, petrochemical, fertilisers, oil and gas, power, cement, refrigeration, food & beverage processing and many more. Innovation in heat exchanger design has been necessitated by the rapid growing technology demands in process industry. Heat exchanger design today needs to be energy efficient, withstand a range of process materials taking impact of factors such as varying temperature, pressure, corrosion, fouling, metal combination, etc. New heat exchanger types are developed for specific process application depending on the need for energy conservation.
Globally, there has been a marked increase in demand for heat exchangers in chemical process industry for various processes to enhance energy efficiency. Hygienic and sensitive processes like pharma, healthcare and food processing are moving much faster to adapt emerging advancements in heat transfer technology for a diverse range of applications. Heat exchanger market is growing faster in many emerging markets and in the Asian region including South East Asia and Asia Pacific. Heat exchanger market in these regions is foreseen to continue to have a CAGR of 10 to 15 per cent.
How big is the market for the pharma industry?
The pharma industry has witnessed a decent growth of over 25 per cent in the past years and we expect the industry to maintain and have much a higher growth. There is a growing demand for healthcare products like nutraceuticals, probiotic healthcare supplements, apart from fortified products and generic drugs. The improvement in healthcare infrastructure has also given a boost to the pharma sector.
Which services/ products do you offer to the pharma sector and how much business is generated?
We have a vast range of heat transfer products mainly; ecoflux corrugated tube heat exchanger, shell and tube heat exchanger, plate heat exchanger and heat exchanger based systems for various applications like heating cooling, heat recovery, condensation, sub cooling, reboiler, etc. Our products offer various advantages to the customers in terms of higher efficiency, better product recovery, flexibility in various processes apart from being economical. Our hot water systems for the pharma industry enable better control on the product processing, thus help to enhance productivity and lower cost. We offer heat exchangers in stainless steel and higher grades of metals like hastelloy, duplex, alloy 20, titanium, tantalum, etc., depending on the property of fluid and process requirement. Over 25 per cent of our business comes from the pharma sector and have been having a healthy growth in this sector.
What cost effective solutions do the company offer to its clients?
We offer all heat transfer solutions for the pharma sector under one roof. Different applications require different heat transfer equipment. HRS is able to offer customer solutions based on any of these or a combination of these to suit the processes requirements. Thus, we offer right technical solution for the applications rather than select a product because we have. This is appreciated by customers who can evaluate the three key heat transfer equipment and make a cost effective selection.
How competitive is the business market and whom do you consider as a competitor?
The business market is very competitive with local fabricators and established companies, some of whom are multinationals. We have been able to create a niche for ourselves based on our innovative technology product ‘ECOFLUX Corrugated Tube Heat Exchanger’ and providing heat exchangers with different material of construction as required by the industry. We have been able to demonstrate the advantage of our product and in the past decade have sold over 6000 heat exchangers to the sector with over 50 per cent repeat business.
Who are your clients in the pharma industry.
Our customers in the pharma industry are top notch blue-chip companies like Dr Reddy, Pfizer, Ranbaxy, Cipla, Sun Pharma, Glaxo SmithKline, Nicholas Piramal, Wockhardt, Glenmark, Hetero Drugs, Matrix Labs, Aurobindo Pharma, Torrent Pharma, Aventis Pharma, Lupin, Cadila Healthcare, Novartis, Alembic and many mor