Clean India Journal in conversation with Christian May, Deputy Global CEO, Karcher

This is a fantastic area of products that we do have in our range that could bring a lot of good things to the people here. Cleaning the air, helping them with environment protection and working on that. But this is not everything. It's a lot more because in general cleaning is becoming more and more important as society is evolving and for us we are working a lot in this market. So that means we have to customize our product to the needs of the consumers here in India on the professional side as well as on the retail side. And for this we are not only thinking about the sales which we have already started and we have already coverage over the regions but we are also thinking on how and where to produce and also for this India is very interesting for us. We have already started with one operation which is Arma where we are producing professional products but we are also looking for partners for consumer products that could produce for us machines in the future and on top of that we are thinking in the longer run also having our own production here in India.

Yeah, first of all I think this is a very interesting question especially towards learning. Lifelong learning is very important for us. We just talked this morning about this. How do we have programs that continuously improve the skill level of all our people within the company and how do we foster this development so that they can strive for the next level always and really develop themselves, helping also us to conquer the market in a better way. This is the one area where we have to develop our own people but at the same time we have to look at the industry trends and make sure that we are not missing out on anything that is happening in the industry. Technology wise but also on the demand side and we are constantly working on new technologies and trends. So the latest ones are certainly in robotics. So we are just launching the Kira B50 which is our latest scrubbing machine, scrubbing robot that is entering the market now also coming to India. And I think this is an important development that we have here which will help a lot of bigger companies to ensure cleanliness in their productions, in their environments. But at the same time also avoiding accidents and things like this because you don't need people anymore to operate the machine. At the same time AI and IoT plays an ever evolving and more important role in controlling all these processes and we are also investing in that. And last but not least, I think in these times corporate social responsibility is more and more important and we are investing a lot into that area, helping others really taking care of their facilities in an environmentally friendly way but also working in the society giving something back to society with what we are doing.

As an example on how we foster talents here is our new training center. We just inaugurated at the beginning of the year a new training center to specially train our own people on how to work with the products, how to sell those products, how to repair those products. So this is for all the areas of our company, a very, very important part. And on top of that, we are also using this not only for the people in our own company, but also the people at our dealer partners out there to train them as well on their ability on selling and servicing our products and getting the best knowledge on how to really make best use of these machines. And I'm very proud of this and what the team of Jatinda Cowell and my colleagues achieved to really go forward on that because I believe that training and developing these people is one of the most important issues and the most important topics if you want to become successful in this market. But in today's world, social responsibility and environmental responsibility are very, very important. Therefore, one of the most important parts for us is after sales service, and after sales service for both not only for the consumer products that you see here behind us, but also for our professional products. We have to be able to repair all these products. The repairability of all these machines is important to us. Not just to throw them away when they have a small problem, but to be able to repair them to bring them back in operation. And for this we have very skilled technicians all across the country, own technicians but also technicians at our dealer partners that are ready to take on the challenge of repairing those products and making them stay very, very long in the market, also giving a good performance to their users and making the maximum use out of them. For us it's not only about the lifetime of the product but also how to recycle the product. So that means first of all, as I explained a little bit about the service, first of all we want to keep the product as long in service as possible. So make the maximum use out of it but even after the use of it, we have to be able to recycle the product in a very good way. So already in construction we think about how the recycling process later on, how can we separate the different materials, how can they be reused, and on top of that we are using a lot of recycling material in our new productions as well. So just to give you one example, if you look at our pressure washers, an integral part inside of the pressure washer in the smaller machines, there's GFK this is around the pump and this is from old airbags. So we are recycling old airbags from cars. And part of this is then in our machines as recycling material. This is only one small example of many things we are doing around that because we believe that we have to be sustainable with our products and it's also in our DNA. We are a cleaning company. We also want to make our contribution and give our share to a clean world.

We are just introducing into the market here right behind me. You find the air purifiers, I think at this time of the year very important here in India. But you see also a wet and dry vacuum here, which for us is a very important product here in the Indian market. By the way, one of the products we seek first for local production. And also you see the new robots that we have in our hands. Here are the consumer robots for households which already are being very well received here in the market. So I'm very happy with these product introductions that we are running right at the moment and to do so it is very important for us to have talents in our company that are able to sell these products and service these products. So both areas are very important and India is very rich in people and talents and this is one of the opportunities for us that we can work with having all these people here and finding the right talents in the market to foster our development, to drive our sales here in the market and to continue our sales growth and our success story in India.

For example, next year on the commercial side, we are going to launch a complete new range of professional hot water and cold water pressure washers, which is the core of our business, the core of what we are doing, where we are coming from. This will come to market next spring. I'm really looking forward to introduce this also to all our partners, but even more to our customers. And we have new spray extraction machines that are coming to the market. And I think especially with cleaning upholstery and carpet, this is a very important topic here in this market. So tons of opportunities. Industrial vacuums I love a lot and especially in the automotive section are very important products. So there are many, many opportunities in my opinion that we have here in this market with all these products coming to the market. This is why I'm so enthusiastic about development here and why I do see a huge potential in the next years in India.