Reifenhauser India Marketing Private Limited and Goebel IMS- a brand of IMS Technologies, are in talks for a joint venture to provide qualified service to the equipment with local field engineers in 2024. Both companies believe that together they have perceived and picked up the pulse of the Indian market. With extrusion being the core business, Reifenhauser India provides technologies for the paper industry, flexible packaging solutions and green energy solutions. On the other hand, Goebel IMS has been at the forefront of mechanical engineering and construction for 170 years and is a leading provider of slitter rewinders, automatic un- and winders as well as inspection machines for a wide range of materials. In a recent interaction with Paper Mart magazine, Ms. Jinali Mehta, Head Operations, Reifenhauser India Marketing Private Limited, and Mr. Giovanni Cama, Sales Director Paper, Goebel IMS, talked about their companies, market footprint, and USP. They also shared their views about the Indian market and their collaboration.
Paper Mart: Please tell us about your company, its history and milestones.
Jinali Mehta: Established in 1994, Reifenhauser India Marketing Private Limited was founded by Mr. Manish Mehta & family in a joint venture with Reifenhauser Maschinenfabrik GmbH & Co. KG., Germany whose core is extrusion in plastics. Reifenhauser India today has a fully equipped after-sales service team for technical services and preventive maintenance of machines globally with 24/7 support. With extrusion being the core business, Reifenhauser India has now ventured further into other segments, for instance wire & cable, paper, and green energy solutions.
We have been working with HÖRAUF, Germany for paper cups for the last two years. The paper cup segment in India has been dominated by Korean and Chinese paper cup manufacturers for a very long time. We are now trying to build a foundation for the easy adoption of German technology for paper cups. Additionally, we have ventured into the paper bag and packaging segment as recently, the demand for paper bags and paper bag packaging has increased which has been driven by the e-commerce segment and fast food chains. Goebel IMS is our partner for providing packaging slitters, film slitters and small converting slitters as well.
Giovanni Cama: Goebel IMS is a brand of IMS Techno-logies and combines the experience and the background of Goebel which was founded in 1851 and IMS in 1954. Goebel IMS has been at the forefront of mechanical engineering and construction for 170 years and is a leading provider of slitter rewinders, automatic un- and winders as well as inspection machines for a wide range of materials. Our main focus is on providing solutions rather than machines because that’s what the demand is in the market. Every mill, company, and machine has different levels of automation and different levels of capacity. With more than 11,000 solutions worldwide, we have solutions for everybody and this is the strength of Goebel IMS. We’re convinced that we can do a very good market in India, together with Reifenhauser India.
PM: Kindly shed light on your market footprint. What is your USP that keeps you ahead of your competition?
JM: Headquartered in Mumbai, Reifenhauser India has eight branch offices all over the country. Reifenhauser India serves the entire Indian subcontinent, excluding Pakistan. That’s India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Bangladesh.
We go beyond simply selling cutting-edge technologies. We have a dedicated team of 45 members to ensure prompt and reliable assistance for long-term customer success, providing comprehensive after-sales support including installation and commissioning. For us, selling is just the first step. We believe in building long-lasting partnerships. Our service acts as a “second sale,” continuously exceeding customer expectations. Our USP is that we don’t just meet market demands; we anticipate them. We offer valuable insights and vision, guiding our clients throughout their journey. We’re dependable partners, walking alongside our customers on their journey to success. We don’t work as an agent, rather we work as somebody who provides the know-how, the vision, and a market kind of view or purview of what could be coming next.
GC: Goebel IMS has its headquarters in Calcinate, Italy, and branch offices in Germany, New Jersey, and Beijing. For the Indian market, we have a partnership with Reifenhauser India. In 2024, we are planning a joint venture company with Reifenhauser India to provide qualified service to our equipment with local field engineers.
Our biggest USP is that apart from having deep market knowledge and extensive technical expertise, we develop high-performance machines for manufacturing and converting film, paper and board, tobacco, liquid aseptic packaging, flexible packaging, alufoil, and other special materials. We listen to the market and the customer. We share the experience and we develop new solutions. That, for us, is an everyday exercise. Our engineers are ready to follow the market plan and the quest. In Goebel IMS we provide a full production cycle from the engineering to the manufacturing, and this is an added value because we can be flexible, we can customize the solution for the customer, we can keep the quality and the timing under our control because everything is manufactured in-house and this is only in Goebel IMS.
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PM: You represent the western companies coming to India, which is a price-sensitive market. What are your views on this and suggestions to the industry?
JM: We genuinely believe that the kind of investment done in R&D in all these years by the western world or from the east, like Japan, deserves due credit. So whether it’s the Japanese, Europeans, the Americans, or the Middle East companies, all of them are developing technologies for a better tomorrow.
Eastern countries like Taiwan, China, and India, give good value for money and we believe that this could be setting the first step for anything new in a developing industry. For the next step, the leap that the Indian manufacturers, converters, or packaging manufacturers would need, would come from the developed countries who have already invested highly in R&D. Due respect to all the Far East and the Indian manufacturers, who set a stone or wave, for somebody to have his first investment for trial & error and to take the first leap. This is where we at Reifenhauser India come into play. Everybody is doing their job of contributing to the industry with their strengths.
GC: We share the same vision because selling is just the first point. In Goebel IMS we have a very big R&D department with 80 people in engineering. So to develop new solutions and anticipate the trends, we are in contact with the major players in the world. That’s the point I believe we can get new trends coming from the market and offer solutions to the rest of the world to be always up to date and to offer high-end technology. I believe in India there are very good players who will buy our achievements to be at the top end of the market.
PM: What is your vision for India as a market? How do you plan to take that forward and implement it?
JM: The upcoming collaboration with Goebel IMS will bring their expertise and brand to India. This decision stemmed from IMS’s perception of the Indian market’s potential. Whenever a company takes a big step to enter a new market, the decision is well thought. The decision of IMS to enter the Indian market is fueled by the aggressive, customer-centric nature of the Goebel IMS team. The team of IMS prioritizes understanding customer needs and tailoring their offerings accordingly. Both IMS and Reifenhauser India believe that together we have perceived and picked up the pulse of the Indian market. We are very customer-centric, and they are very people-oriented. They respond to customer’s requests swiftly and promptly. It always takes time to understand the culture, but they have picked it up easily. This is something that gives us confidence that we are with the right people.
GC: Our vision of the Indian market is that we are ready to listen to all the players in the paper business including paper converters, machine manufacturers, & all the other big players. We are confident that with our engineering team, we will be able to customize the solution for this market that can be different from the European market or the US market. So that’s the reason why we are here in India. We already did some mill visits to offer solutions based on our experience. We have had quite good experience in many different business applications, but our experience is nothing if we don’t listen to the customer. Each customer is different. Each country has a different mentality. We don’t want to force customers to buy our products. But the opposite, we want to give customers a good solution for their needs. That’s the essence of Goebel IMS.
