In an exclusive chat with Claus from Food Infotech, Pathik Panchal, Director, PWS Engineers Private Limited shares more details on some of the recent innovations that they’ve worked on for the Dairy Industry, including mentioning some details about the strategies that they’ve planned to target more markets with their solutions in the coming days and a lot more.
Read: September Issue of Food Infotech Magazine.
Could you please start by letting us know briefly about the dairy equipment/solutions that PWS Engineers has been working on recently?
We are manufacturers of fully automatic filling and packaging machines for liquid and semi liquid dairy products like ice cream, curd, lassi, shrikhand, buttermilk, cheese spread, etc. Recently, we have kept more focus towards manufacturing High Speed Machines and Bespoke machines for our customers in the Dairy Industry. These machines are developed specifically as special purpose machines and are targeted to pack products that might not be handled generally in the conventional machineries that are available in market.
Please tell us about your company’s performance in the market this year as compared to last year. What were some of the changes that you’ve been able to observe when it comes to the demand for your equipment/solutions?
When we talk about financial year 2022-23, I can tell you that the demand that we have been experiencing has been 3 times higher as compared to last year. To simplify, we can state that post COVID-19, our customers as well as the consumers of dairy products have been attaching more importance to the hygiene aspect. This in turn has created the necessity to develop machines that are hygienic, highly efficient, reliable and user friendly. Our machinery has also been consistently meeting all these requirements.
It has been encouraging to note that in the current year as well as previous year, we have been receiving more repeat orders from our existing customers than ever before and we are also equally honoured to be shaking hands with new customers as well.
A bit about any recent innovations you’ve been working on or have worked on recently for the Dairy Industry.
We have developed machines that possess the capability to function wirelessly. These solutions have reduced the hardwiring to a great extent making the machine user-friendly and easy to troubleshoot. We have incorporated this facility in high speed linear machines as of today.
We have developed fully automatic 3 axis pick-and-place system for directly picking packed products from our machines to a continuous motion hardening tunnel.
One of our products named as “PIFF 2000” is an ingredient fruit feeder that has been developed for the first time in India. With this machine, we have successfully addressed the demand for addition of fresh fruits chunks into the flowing ice cream without crushing/shearing them. Additionally, the cost is 3 times lesser than the imported machines which had been the only available option previously.
We have developed airless spraying module for our cone packing machines, which is capable of spraying liquid chocolate without the usage of air, thereby resulting in high functioning accuracy, less usage of chocolate and efficient coating. Again, for the first time in India by PWS.
For the first time in India, PWS Engineers has developed machines that are capable to heat seal the ice cream cones.
Please let us know some of the general demands/expectations that you’ve been hearing from most of your clients, particularly ice cream manufacturers and how has PWS Engineers been fulfilling their demands?
We are lucky to have customers who have similar working principles as that of ours. Most of our customers demand solutions that require innovations. And with our expertise, we have successfully been able to develop and supply beyond their expectations. Accepting ideas and their demands with an open mind and having a positive mindset on how a solution can be achieved, rather than focusing on why it cannot be achieved has helped us improve the quality of our machines as well as grown our product portfolio over the years.
Can you name some of your major clients in the Dairy Sector?
Some of our major clients in the Dairy Industry are Amul, including all its cooperative dairies, Hindustan Unilever Ltd., Havmor, Creambell, Nestle, Britannia, Namaste India, Vadilal, Dairy Day, Gyan Dairy, Heritage, including a few more dairy companies.
How many countries have you been serving as on date?
Apart from the domestic market, we have been serving 5 export markets. We hope to serve more markets in the coming days too.
Can you share with us some details about any recent strategies that you’ve planned to target more markets with your equipment/solutions this year?
Our strategies have always been about bagging opportunities that allow us to design, develop and supply solutions which are not possible to achieve from conventional options that are available in the market. Our primary motto when it comes to designing a product is to “never” limit its potential keeping in mind the financial aspects. Catering to a huge volume segment would require undertaking cost-cutting measures as it involves mass production. Moreover, mass production in this business would require some compromises to be made in the quality at some points. Hence, this has not been at the top of our priority list.
We believe that a worthy and sustainable product will create demand on its own and our cream customer base reflects the same. Being a family business, our directors are personally involved from the beginning till the end for handling all the orders that we receive from our clients.
Lastly, what are your future plans?
As of today, we will only continue to focus on what we are doing at present with no compromise on quality.
