RINGSPANN has set high ambitions for growth in Australia with the company aiming to expand by 25 to 30 per cent by 2025. The company tells Australian Mining about its plans.
General manager Seshan Ramaswamy says RINGSPANN Australia is going to achieve this ambitious goal by being at the forefront of reaching customers before their projects hit the ground.
The manufacturer of power transmission components first opened doors in Australia in 2018 after its head office in Germany saw an opportunity for better communication with local customers.
With over 75 years of engineering background, the company hopes to build on its expertise to achieve this goal.
“First of all, we need to ensure we are getting to customers before the projects are at the design phase. This is key to getting into the market as well as not just having the standard product, but customisable application,” Ramaswamy says.
“We can optimise the solution to suit various applications in the mining industry. Our research and development team are constantly working with our products to ensure they are up to date and meet the standards.”
Ramaswamy says that keeping in contact with customers to ensure their needs are met is also key to achieving further growth for the company
“We are constantly looking at the stocks of our products and that helps us make sure we are stocking the standard products well in our warehouse to ensure there is a quick turnaround for customers,” he explains.
With all of RINGSPANN’s factories based overseas and products taking six to eight weeks to arrive, Ramaswamy says that by making sure its products in Australia are fully stocked, it cuts downtime for operations.
Despite the global challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, RINGSPANN still finished the year stronger than it did in 2019.
Ramaswamy recalls that it took the company six to eight weeks to understand the gravity of the situation and see what could be done to move forward.
“We found many customers weren’t replying to enquiries as they tried to navigate the climate at the time. However, we kept in contact with them and made it our first priority to ensure they were safe and secure,” he says.
“The last 12 months were challenging for all of us, but luckily for RINGSPANN we were operating from our office because we were classified as an essential service supporting the mining industry. And because our office is only a two-person operation, we were able to social distance.”
As a result, Ramaswamy is confident the company will be able to increase its gains by 10 per cent in 2021 by continuing to establish a strong foundation of communication.
With this short-term aim, Ramaswamy says RINGSPANN is providing a pathway to reaching its overall growth target.
“The last six months of 2020 we finished stronger than 2019 and that was a big surprise for us. Despite not being able to meet with our customers in person, we constantly connect with them online and through video,” he says.
“To make sure we were still present and proactive in the market, we made sure we were in contact with our customers to let them know how we could support them.”
Ramaswamy reinforces that it is important for RINGSPANN’s customers to realise that by working with the company, they have an industry partner with highly qualified employees.
RINGSPANN has grown from its headquarters in Bad Homburg, Germany to employ 480 people worldwide across 17 international companies.
The company provides drivetrain components to more than 6000 global customers in industries such as mining and food.
RINGSPANN operated through a distributor for a number of years in Australia, but shifted its sights to pursue a globalised business model over the past 15 years, which led to the establishment of RINGSPANN Australia in 2018.
RINGSPANN’s product offerings include freewheels, industrial brakes, shaft-hub connections, overload clutches, and coupling and precision clamping fixtures to the mining industry.
The company aims to go above and beyond the expectations of customers, often providing unique solutions that are typically not available in its official catalogue of products.
“We talk to our colleagues in South Africa, North and South America, India and China for new ideas and share the success with our local customers,” Ramaswamy says.
“RINGSPANN is always on the ball and takes pride in sharing ideas across the company to ensure the customer gets the best result.”
This story also appears in the May issue of Australian Mining.