Q.1.Could you brief our readers about yourself? What’s the success mantra of this wonderful journey?
Ans. POK is looking to serve other countries outside of Europe, China, Africa and the USA, amongst other territories. We are now actively supplying in India and various Middle East Countries. The success mantra of POK is to provide Quality product and best after sales service. POK is committed to provide a large product offering that meet the evolution of a demanding and progressive industry. POK products are designed for unrivalled quality, reliability & durability at a competitive price.
I joined the Company quite recently (more than a year ago) as the International Sales Director, dealing with the growth of POK worldwide. I have always been working in an international environment and this taught me to be very open minded, to carefully analysis others needs and to always take into account the specificity of each targeted country. This is a real challenge to switch from one continent to another. I’m always eager to find out new markets for a challenging range of products as the one of POK’s. Needless to say that India, which is for me a totally new territory, is full of surprise and a very exciting and challenging market for me and my team, and we are all highly committed and involved in this new adventure.
Q.2.POK has been doing the rounds in the Fire Industry since the last 40 years; could you share with our readers your view of the Fire Industry market in India market?
Since the inception of POK 40 years ago, POK is still creating & manufacturing the finest state of art product to better serve the Fire Industry. We carefully understand the demand and needs of fire fighters and we develop accordingly the products. We offer the most comprehensive range of product line in the field of Fire Fighting equipment. Should you want some more information I invite you to visit our website : www.pok.fr
Indian Fire Fighting Market is moving towards to state of the art products from more conventional fire Fighting Equipment; with rapid industrialization and escalating government regulations the Fire Industry market in India is poised for growth. POK is ready to provide innovative products to the Indian Fire Industry.
Q.3.What is the latest products launched by POK? Could you brief us about their usage & how is it going to benefit the Indian markets?
We are proud with our wide range of hand nozzles, manual, semi-automatic and automatic. We can therefore meet all the requirements from the Indian market for the fire brigades (big or small) together with the needs of industry such as the “Oil and Gas” industry for instance as well as the marine industry. Our hand nozzle range of products goes from 150 to 1.000 lpm. We have also a large range of remote controlled monitors ranging from 2.400 to 30.000 lpm. These are very useful to equip refineries, power production site and any other high risk site which demand the very best technology to ensure a reliable and efficient production against the fire hazard.
Q.4.What is the initiative taken by POK to be the best in the Indian Fire Safety & Security market?
We recently opened a Sales Office managed by SandeepShrivastava (phone : + 91 8510 828 702 – email : [email protected]), who are experienced in this business area. This means that POK has a now a “voice” in India, making it possible to have rapid answers and quotations. We are therefore able to bring all the support needed as far as products demonstrations and technical advice are concerned. Sandeep is now structuring a very strong network of POK dealers all over the country to be as near as possible to our customers always.
Q.5.What is your market expectations with regards to the new product launches from the Indian Region? What is POK Strategy in India to brand these new products?
POK is the French leader in firefighting equipment and is one of the key manufacturers in Europe. We want to bring to the Indian market the French quality which makes it possible for us to export almost 60% of our production to almost 100 countries. There is no reason that we could not also offer this quality to the Indian market which is also in need of quality products and affordable prices. We expect therefore to enter the market both by serving both the fire brigades and the industry. Our strategy is to offer a wide range of products (hand nozzles, manual monitors, remote controlled monitors, but also all kind of coupling, dividers, measurement equipment, etc.). Our customers should be able to find from POK most of the products they need which enable is to be a unique supplier. We are going to participate to some trade shows. The next one being the Fire India, taking place in September in Mumbai, India This is another way for us to carefully listen to the market, meet our prospects and customers and answer their needs.
Q.6.Brief us about your Global presence & outreach? How is POK positioning itself in the Indian Fire & Security market?
POK is a very export oriented company. We serve almost all the continents. Our first market abroad is China, followed by German and North Africa (for some obvious reason, we are doing a lot of business in all the French speaking countries of Africa). Our fame is well known and recognized and that is why we are proud to serve key customers in the oil and gas industry such as the Sonatrac in Algeria. POK can definitely be seen as a “challenger”. We are new in this market which is very exciting but also very demanding. We cannot be “bad” (and we do not intend to be). As we did on all the other territories where we export, we will offer high quality products and services positioning ourselves as a “first class” supplier with high-tech products.
Q.7. Could you share your experience of the Intersec Dubai? What response did you get from visitors & valuable exhibitors?
The Intersec Dubai show was a key event. It is one of the main exhibitions for the industry, similar to Interschutz in Germany (which is taking place only every 5 years). This is a unique opportunity for us to meet and see many of our partners (distributors) in the area, and exhibit our full range of product. We were exhibiting “live” a 2000 lpm remote controlled monitor which attracted many guests. This Congress is key to generate more valuable contacts, recruit some new distributors and of course meet our customers. We noted a high increase in our Indian visitors and were happy to share with them the news that we are opening our new Indian Sales office.
Q.8. What are your views regards to the latest developments in Smart cities projects and Safe cities missions, how is POK going to help in making These mission & projects successful?
We are very careful about new technologies and are very responsive in this field. We pay a lot of attention to develop solutions with our customers, more than the product itself. To give you an example, we have been developing recently a very specific network of remote controlled monitors to equip the Airbus production site in China. This was the result of a genuine non-stop dialogue with our customer.
Q.9. what are the challenges faced by POK in India & how are you going to out beat those challenges?
One of the main challenges is to properly cover the full territory of India. India is a huge country. We have artificially divided the country in 4 parts and have appointed duly validated and involved partners in each part of the territory to be physically near our customers. Step by step, we hope to set up some buffer stocks locally and be therefore able to give the appropriate response in a very short period of time. Being near our customer will be one condition to our success. Sandeep is actively working at this. He is in the field every day meeting prospects, and carrying out live water demonstration of our products with his team. Testing POK products helps our customers to adopt these products. This is why we need to be on the road every week to show our products and solutions.
Q.10. what are the Future Plans of POK for Indian and the Global market?
In India, we will be very happy in 2017, if we have reached our goals, namely: making us known, increasing our visibility and acquiring some key accounts in the oil and gas industry as well as within some Indian fire brigades. We are pursuing our expansion worldwide by generating new partnership. We have just signed an agreement with the UK Company, Supply Plus Limited, which will represent us in Great Britain and Ireland. Again, being nearer the market with some local sales team is the way for us to offer the best service with the best products.