Alfred Kärcher founded a firm at Bad Cannstatt in Stuttgart in 1935 to produce and sell products in the field of heating technology. He made his breakthrough into the cleaning technology industry in 1950 with the development of the first European hot water high-pressure cleaner (the DS 350 steam jet), which still forms the basis of all burners today.
Initially Kärcher’s product range covered basic cleaning requirements in the areas of transport and buildings. Later, the range was expanded with the addition of wet and dry vacuum cleaners, sweeper vacuums and scrubber driers, vehicle washing bays, steam cleaners, cleaning agents and drinking water and wastewater treatment systems. The year 2011 witnessed a remarkable addition of 100 products to Kärcher’s catalogue!
In 1962, Kärcher founded its first foreign subsidiary in France, followed by that in Austria and Switzerland. In 1975, Kärcher opened a factory in Brazil, and by 1985 the company had founded 16 sales companies in North America, Africa, Australia and other continents and countries. At the dawn of 2018, Kärcher was represented by its subsidiaries in 65 countries, and it generated 85% of its sales abroad. With 40,000 customer service points in over 190 countries, it provides comprehensive support to its customers all over the world.
In 2011 Kärcher acquired its distributor in India. Today, Kärcher Cleaning Systems Pvt. Ltd. has its registered office in Delhi and a fully-owned subsidiary in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, as its headquarters where centralized functions like product management, service support team, trainers and customer help-line operate. It also serves as a warehouse for stocks machine and spare parts for North India. The main warehouse is in Gujarat.
Kärcher India has to its credit the introduction of a ‘Kärcher Academy’ which can accommodate up to 80 people, for holding customer seminars, sales and service training, special cleaning educational seminars and other similar gatherings.
Indian market
India has been the subject to Kärcher’s cleaning revolution for the past 20 years now. With 12 branch offices, 300 employees and 90 dealers, the company ensures direct and indirect sales in the whole of India. Despite India still being classified as only a developing country with respect to cleaning machinery usage in its industries, Kärcher has managed to become the second largest dealer in the country for the same! The company operates in four verticals, namely, Automotive, Hospitality, Facility Management, outsourced cleaning firms and the Industry Vertical which includes the textile sector.
While mechanization of all the other industrial aspects in India had occurred almost simultaneously with the Industrial Revolution, the cleaning aspect of it was still largely manual and unorganized in nature. However, the introduction of Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan in India has changed this scenario for good. The high-end nature of the Kärcher Cleaning Solutions still make it challenging for the cost-effective buyers, in the Textile Industries, to prioritize but given the amount of yarn-cleaning, fabric-cleaning and chemical cleaning required in this field, this challenge can be easily overcome.
The General Manager of the Industrial Vertical along with his specialists in the same can be addressed for any relevant Indian inquiries. While making these inquiries, it’d be wise to also make a wish list from the wide range of specialized solutions the company offers such as industrial vacuums, ultra-high pressure cleaners, dry ice cleaners, container cleaners, reactor and boiler cleaners, stationary high-pressure cleaners, parts cleaners and work protection gear.
Beyond the barriers
The Indian economy has recently acquired a dynamic character, owing mainly to the developments like the demonetization and GST implementation. While these developments were in keeping with the long-term national benefits, the collateral damage, though short-term, was serious. Kärcher experienced disruption of business with the unorganized sector of its Automotive Vertical, but the organized sector remained, more or less, stable.
GST proved more constructive than otherwise. However, a lot of time and money were spent in updating the IT and manpower with the same. Petitions have been made to the Government to revise the GST rates.
Kärcher may have faced a few barriers with these developments but history bears witness to the fact that the company is entirely capable of overcoming them as it did in the middle of the 19th century and the 2nd World War by switching attention and production towards goods for urgent, everyday use, round stoves, small cookers, handcarts and trailers for tractors, in the absence of other markets.
Fast forward
In an exclusive interview to The Textile Magazine, Mr. Ruediger Schroeder, Managing Director, Karcher Cleaning Solutions Pvt. Ltd., said: “The Indian entity as a whole generated a turnover of well over Rs. 100 crores last year and has also achieved a 20% rise in growth in the past years with a target of doubling the sales after an interval of every three years.”
The company’s reputation precedes it, but other factors such as the Government regulations imposed, Government incentives received, the consumer willingness displayed and the changed priorities towards the cleaning sector of the industries will play a major role in the score sheet of the company. Out of the box efforts such as the generated waste segregation and its reuse are also being taken which will enable the use of spilled and wasted chemical in the future, thus saving cost and environment. Oil and grease segregation techniques and services are already available to the customers.
If Mr. Alfred Kärcher lived beyond his modest 58 years of life, he would have experienced the immense success of his brainchild and the greatest of all bliss, complacency. Having pioneered many state-of-the-art technologies, turning over a multi-digit profit per annum and ranking as the second biggest seller in the industrial sector of India, Kärcher has gone through its goals with success.
The company is not only economically smart but is also socially aware, and this it reflects in its participation in the community outside its everyday work that supports cultural events or social facilities. For more than eight years it has been equipping SOS children’s villages with cleaning equipment and building green filter plants together with the Global Nature Fund in developing countries.
Any and every association with this company will do more than just satiate a whole range of requirements of any firm by also providing a higher notch to its customers over their competitors in the near future as it goes on to dominate the market with the most creative inventions and even better marketing of the same.
Vacuuming in textile industry
Kärcher has come up with a dedicated solution to collect lint generated during various cotton processing stages.
With revolutionary vacuum machines Model- RA 50/RA 80 Textile with a unique operating principal & design, this machine can effectively address this typical nuisance observed in textile industry. Below are few advantages of the machine.
- Very compact design with a sturdy built
- Side channel blower for continuous heavy duty operation
- Efficient motor with very low operating sound
- Lint get sucked from top of the container, inside the filter bag
- Once the bag is full, it can be removed, emptied & reused very easily
- This machine can also be used as fixed system at the lint generating point
- By this way we can avoid lint getting air born
(Working Principle)
With this machine in their kitty, one can convey the promise of clean work stations for textile industry at all the production stages.