Mr. Venkataramana Gorti

How do you see the current state of Indian woodworking industry?

Mr. Venkataramana Gorti: I am very happy to see the way the industry is poised today. The customers I am seeing and meeting here, each of them is showing a double digit growth in minimum with some of them even doubling their revenue. I think the growth will be phenomenal in the next two years for India.

What are your expectations from this edition of IndiaWood?

Mr. Venkataramana Gorti: IndiaWood is a great platform to showcase latest ideas, technologies and solutions to the customers. Customers are coming here to understand what is available for them for the future and I think it is a great success.

Also, how are the Indian customers accepting digitization?

Mr. Venkataramana Gorti: People in India are generally very tech savvy. The customers I am meeting are really interested to see what kind of solutions Homag give with respect to IoT, VR and AR. There is a lot of curiosity and interest in investing there. And that’s where Homag can really play a big role because we have readymade solutions. We are also coming up with AR and VR which is integrated into that. The industry is thus moving in right direction. Also in the current scenario where labour is more and more expensive as well as unpredictable – digitization is the only way to move forward.

As the new Managing Director, you are putting the spotlight on VOC (Voice of Customers). Can you tell briefly your idea on VOC?

Mr. Venkataramana Gorti: In any industry, customers dictate the direction in which the company must move. Coming from a six sigma background, I believe VOC is the right way to be always in touch with customers and understand what they need. So looking at all the interactions I had with the customers with respect to what they expect from Homag on the product portfolio, on the solutions and the result of that is, we can see an introduction of a couple of new machines which is designed specifically for the customer base which we were not catering. We are trying to have an early engagement with the customers.

Homag is a global company. Where does Homag place India as a market?

Mr. Venkataramana Gorti: For Homag, India is one of the key focus areas and that can be even evident as we had our global CEO here for the first two days of IndiaWood where he has big plans including investment. We are consolidating into one location with a state of the art new factory setting up. We are going to come up with developing a software team in India. It will support globally. We have lot of plans – especially in India where we are also strengthening our team, hiring more people and working on lot of investments. So for Homag, India is a very key area where we are envisaging lot of growth.