FORWARD TOGETHER

Quaker Chemical (1918) and Houghton International (1865) had, in their individual capacities, built reputations as technology and customer-centric companies. The combined entity Quaker Houghton has a history of 250 years and is looking for cross-selling opportunities and continued market growth. Quaker Houghton offers metal cutting and forming fluids, corrosion protection fluids, specialty hydraulic fluids, and steel and aluminum rolling oils.

Houghton customers will benefit from Quaker’s strength in specialty greases, high-pressure die casting, mining specialties, surface treatment and bio-based lubricants. Quaker customers, on the other hand, will have access to Houghton’s quenchants, forging oils, offshore hydraulic fluids, metal finishing products, and a broader metal removal fluids portfolio. The combination of Quaker Chemical and Houghton International nearly doubles the size of either company. Together it employs around 4,000 associates serving around 15,000 customers worldwide.

The beginning

Quaker Chemical began its journey in India in 1997 with headquarters in Kolkata and in a span of nearly 25 years established its brand presence across a wide range of industries as a provider of process fluids, chemicals, specialties, and technical expertise. Today, it has regional offices in Bengaluru, Chennai, Pune, and Gurugram to serve markets in southern, western and northern regions.

Tridib Majumder, Managing Director, Quaker Houghton India, takes us through the company’s revenue spinning business in India. “Our metals business unit which caters to the needs of steel and aluminum customers has been a significant contributor to our business. The merger of Quaker and Houghton has been a shot in the arm for our metalworking business. We now have a market presence in a wide gamut of segments such as heat treatment, forging, die casting, aerospace, and so on. Moreover, it is also helping us to consolidate our position in traditional segments such as transportation, industrial and tube and pipe.”

Expanding horizons

The company expanded its presence with a state-of-the-art manufacturing plant close to Dahej port in Gujarat in 2019 for producing rolling oils and metalworking fluids for steel and metalworking markets. The new manufacturing plant will augment its supplies to customers in India, Middle East and East African regions. Throwing more light on the manufacturing plant, Tridib says that the plant is built with unique features in its design such as high efficiency induction motors to reduce energy consumption, a water and condensation recovery system and waste water treatment technology for meeting environmental goals. Presently, it is operating at a capacity of 12,000 metric tonne and the company plans to increase this to 20,000 metric tonne in the second phase.

Robust presence

Quaker Houghton India closely works with major steel manufacturing units in India, Bangladesh and Nepal. It has leading transportation OEMs as its customers and has also established its presence in the aerospace segment. The company manufactures world-class products for machine tool builders and have maximum approvals and recommendations from them, besides offering fluid care and fluid management services for its customers.

Following the combination, Quaker Houghton has a bigger basket of products, making it a one-stop window for customers seeking process and production fluids. Its offering of TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) accrues value to its operations.

Informing more on this Tridib says, “An analogy of TCO is the initial price of buying a car, running cost, repair and maintenance cost and net of the residual value at the time of disposal. All of us will agree that the TCO of different cars can be different and does not depend only on the initial cost of the car — lower running, repair and maintenance cost can help in lowering the TCO. We follow a similar approach while developing our solutions and proposition for our customers through the supply of our value-added products and services.”

Mapping the future

Speaking about India’s strategic importance, Tridib says that with India poised to become a $5 trillion economy in the near future, the company plans to leverage on the increased purchasing power of the burgeoning middle-class population. The company is looking for market penetration and market development strategy and aims to achieve this by increasing the depth and width of its distribution from existing customers and growing its customer base. Quaker Houghton aims to do this by following its core values — Live Safe, Drive Results and Exceed Customer

Expectations

He further informs that the company has been executing its strategy in blocks of three years which has helped it to grow ahead of the market in the last six years and looks forward to leverage this further.

Joint venture

Quaker Houghton has entered into an exclusive joint venture with Grindaix GmbH, a German-based, high-tech provider of coolant control and delivery systems. Tridib sees the partnership as a strategic fit for the company’s business, bringing broad application potential across the entire portfolio. The investment adds high value to the firm’s equipment solutions and fluid intelligence offerings. The technical advantage gained also support customer’s movement towards Industry 4.0 and automation and complements its recent acquisition of Norman Hay Engineering (NHE).
Speaking further he says, “Between NHE and Grindaix, we now have significant engineering, design, fabrication and cloud-based IT capabilities embedded inside the global commercial organization. Working together, our two companies will be able to provide significant benefits and improved process applications to our customers around the world.”

Safeguarding environment

Quaker Houghton aims to be carbon neutral in its global operations by 2030. It is committed to achieve net zero emissions across the entire value chain by 2050. This it hopes to do through energy efficiency and conservation measures, purchasing green power and energy attribute certificates (for example, renewable energy certificates) and neutralize residual emissions using high-quality carbon offsets. This, it believes, will result in a better and safer world and make a positive difference in the lives and organizations it touches.

Poonam Pednekar
Chief Copy Editor
Magic Wand Media Inc
poonam.pednekar@magicwandmedia.in 

Source: Quaker Chemical India Ltd

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