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Pune-based Kirloskar group celebrates 130 years of innovation
Kirloskar Brothers Ltd is among the first Indian companies to embrace the Fourth Industrial Revolution
When one meets Sanjay Kirloskar, 61, the great-grandson of the legendary industrialist Laxmanrao Kirloskar, the passion that Sanjay has for pumps, and the company he leads, is unmistakable.
Chairman and managing director (CMD) of the 130-year-old, Pune-based Kirloskar Brothers Ltd (KBL), Sanjay has very thoughtfully chalked out the things he wants to do to mark the centenary of incorporation of this great Indian multinational.
“We have specially invited Ratan Tata to re-release our Code of Ethics on Sunday,” said the soft-spoken Sanjay in an interview. The flagship of the $2.1 billion Kirloskar Group is already among the most admired engineering firms within and outside India and wants to conquer greater heights without compromising on ethics and values. Such is the commitment to ethics, that every year, employees have to score cent per cent marks in an internal ethics test to qualify for increments and promotions.
On Sunday, KBL’s latest version of ‘Code of Ethics’ will be released ceremoniously by Ratan Tata, chairman emeritus of the Tata Group. “We thought Ratan Tata would be best suited for this,” said Sanjay while speaking about the extraordinary legacy of the Tatas.
The celebration to mark the 100th year of KBL’s incorporation will also be marked by the felicitation of the descendants of two persons who had gone out of their way to assist Laxmanrao in his early years of struggle. With this, the Kirloskars will express gratitude towards the Rambhau Ginde family from Belgaum and the Pant Pratinidhi family from Aundh (Satara).
On the occasion, ‘The man who made machines’, the English edition of Laxmanrao Kirloskar’s inspiring biography ‘Yantrikachi Yatra’ will be released. The occasion will also be marked by brief addresses by the fifth generation of the business family, Rama Kirloskar (MD, Kirloskar Ebara Pumps Ltd) and Alok Kirloskar (MD, SPP Pumps Ltd); besides a special address by the noted scientist RA Mashelkar.
The Kirloskar irrigation pumps are very well known, across India and Africa, but the story goes far beyond with the manufacture of pumps for water supply, oil, gas, marine, defence and other industries, nuclear power and firefighting. Most of the world’s iconic buildings such as Burj Khalifa in Dubai have Kirloskar pumps.
Sanjay took over the leadership of this flagship company of the Kirloskar Group in 1985 and under him, KBL has seen expansion and innovations like canned motor pumps, solar pumps, concrete volute pumps and magnetic drive pumps. The company is India’s largest centrifugal pump manufacturer, and has manufacturing facilities in the Netherlands, South Africa, Thailand, the United Kingdom and US.
In July 2018, it was pumps from the Pune-based KBL which were used to de-water a cave in Mae Sai, Thailand, in which 12 members of a football team were trapped for 17 days. In a rare gesture, the King of Thailand, personally thanked the Kirloskars for this, said Sanjay.
About the future, says Sanjay, the company is focused on making advancements in the manufacture of pumps, valves and turbines and in expanding the range of turbines. “If you ask me whether we are going into manufacturing electric cars, the answer is no,” he quips, while stressing that KBL will focus on its core strengths which is the manufacturing of world-class pumps.
3D Printing and IoT
Kirloskar Brothers Ltd is among the first Indian companies to embrace the Fourth Industrial Revolution, with its forays into 3D Printing and Internet of Things (IoT). “We are the only pump company in the world to have such machines,” said Sanjay about the 3D printing facility for mould casting that KBL has.
“The 3D sand printer machine,” says Pranjal Sharma in his book ‘Kranti Nation: India and the Fourth Industrial Revolution’ “is among the largest in the world and is used to prove new development concepts and help bring innovation quickly to the market.”
The technology is used in foundries to print the mould and core directly, he says.
For the last 10 years, KBL has been remotely managing the water supply system to Kirloskarwadi, 200 km from Pune. The remote operation not only gives the company’s engineers an insight into the performance of pumps and timely alerts on spares, but also opens a flood of business opportunities.
“The software that runs the system minimises breakdowns, creates alerts and ensures that water is available to the plant and the small township of 1,800 residents at Kirloskarwadi,” says Sharma in his book.
The Kirloskar Timeline
•Laxmanrao Kirloskar, founder of the $2.1 billion Kirloskar Group, began with a bicycle repair and selling shop in Belgaum in 1888. His entrepreneurial spirit led him to create the first Kirloskar product — an indigenous hand chaff cutter in 1901, and first iron plough in 1903.
•In 1936, the baton was passed to Laxmanrao’s son, Shantanurao, who brought in innovations such as India’s earliest machine tool and electric motor.
• Shantanurao Laxmanrao Kirloskar also expanded KBL’s footprints in the European market, North America and South East Asia. His wife, Yamutai, supported his vision and started Mahila Udyog Limited to help make women self-reliant.
•Sanjay Kirloskar, took over the leadership of KBL in 1985, bringing in innovations and embracing the fourth industrial revolution.
Bitter feud in Kirloskar family
Recognised as Maharashtra’s leading industrialist family, the fourth generation of the Kirloskars has suffered a serious split between Sanjay Kirloskar and his siblings Atul and Rahul Kirloskar, who are at the helm of affairs at Kirloskar Industries Ltd. (KIL).
Both sides have filed cases and counter cases against each other in various courts in Pune, Karnataka and Mumbai, including National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), Bombay High Court and civil courts. These cases relate to insider trading charges (2012), “suppression and oppression in KBL” filed in National Company Law Tribunal, alleged mismanagement in Kirloskar Institute of Advanced Management Studies, Pune, partition suit with regards to family properties, and deed of family settlement, and trademark.
