‘HaasTec is much more than a mere demonstration’
The fourth edition of Haastec, the exhibition by Haas Automation, the US-based manufacturers of CNC machines, commenced with much elan on Thursday, January 16. Being held for the first time in Mumbai, the exhibition gave an ample opportunity to the company to interact one-to-one with its vendors while its partners were able to showcase their products before the users of Haas machines and thereby have direct conversation with them. Terrence Miranda, the managing director of Haas Automation India and the man behind organising the show was confidence personified and hoped that this joint effort—by the company as well as its partners—will prove helpful to them. In a brief chat with CNCTimes Pvt Ltd, Terrence Miranda explained the need for such shows and the door of opportunity it opens for the prospective vendors. Here are the excerpts:
Q: What is the whole idea behind conducting the exhibition?
A: The idea of having this exhibition originated in the US in 2011 coinciding with the annual distributor meetings which were held every alterative year. The basic principle was to bring vendor partners, the customers as well as distributors under one roof so that all of them gets an opportunity to see the working of machines live through demonstrations. The idea became a huge hit in the US and buoyed over the same, we decided to conduct similar exhibitions in India. We started the same from Chennai in 2011 followed by HaasTec at Ahmedabad in 2012, Delhi in 2013 and the current one in Mumbai.
Q: What is the purpose of having such exhibition?
A: HaasTec is much more than demonstration. We are following the same principle as that in the US, which is to get partners in the allied industry, showcase our latest machinery besides the facility available at our end. Besides, it is also important to have an interaction between our customers, the sales team and the service team and this exhibition serves the same purpose. To achieve the same, we decided to keep the duration of the exhibition for four days so that we get ample time to spend with our partners and customers.
Q: Who are your vendor partners and what are the benefits they are getting out of this expo?
A: Companies engaged in machine tool manufacturing, software (CAD/CAM) developing and workholding are partnering us in this exhibition. From Renishaw to Seco Tools to Delcam to Mastercam all are part of our show while Soveriegn Tech, Srujan Solutions, Zoller, Sandvik Coromont, Mitsubishi, TSi Elecpower (P) Ltd and Nickunj are also taking in this exhibition. Our target is to get 1,000 companies and around 2,000 people visit the show so that Haas and our partners are benefitted with the same. Besides our customers, the partners also invite their own customers and distributors and this way it is a joint effort between us and our partners. Since very few people are aware of our presence in India (as we have only 5% share in the country), this exhibition serves the very purpose of attracting more and more people know about Haas and its machineries. We are also having exhibits from 2-3 companies who expertise in financing such huge machines.
Q: What is your expectations from the exhibition?
A: We are looking to have long-term relations with or partners and distributors and get the maximum feedback from them which is our target. We are exposing our complete list of customers to our partners and we expect the same from them. This way, both of us can prosper and achieve maximum benefits. We are having around 800 customers who are using at least 1,200 Haas machines in this stretch (Mumbai-Pune) and we would like to expand the same.
Q: Which machines are being demonstrated in this HaasTec?
A: We are demonstrating VMCs such as VF-3, VF-2YT along with high performance turning centre like ST-3, the VF-4SS which is a super speed VMC, DT-1 the drill/tap centre and DS-30Y, the dual spindle turning centre.