Interview with MR. Jose Nicolas Correa, President of Group Nicolas Correa by CNCTimes.com

Nicolás Correa S.A., founded in 1947, merged with Industrias Anayak and today is the parent company of the Nicolás Correa Group, one of the leading industrial groups in Europe, both for its size and its innovation, conception, design and manufacture of milling machines. With a workforce of 386 and a turnover of more than 90 million euros, the company is a European leader in milling solutions to answer the demands of the most demanding production tasks, such as manufacturing dies and large moulds, monolithic elements for the aerospace, railway, energy and general mechanical sectors.

Currently, Nicolás Correa exports 80% of its production to the main industrialised countries, such as Germany, China, France, Great Britain, USA, Canada, etc., through a wide network of distributors and subsidiary branches which provide direct, personal contact with the customer. Thousands of clients around the world entrust their machining requirements to the widest and most trustworthy range of milling machines from the correa, which are manufactured in two of their productive plants in Spain, Burgos and Itziar.

In addition, Nicolás Correa has a strong R&D&I department, which takes part in several avant-garde projects in Spain and Europe, besides the company's own projects.

The Excerpts:

Please, tell us in brief what Nicolas Correa is all about?

As a company, we are 70 years old, and we have been making milling machines all our lives. My father founded the company in 1947, and now the company has three subsidiaries in Spain and one in China. Regarding our production facilities and branch offices or commercial premises, we have a presence in several countries including India, where we started branch office about ten years ago. In the past, we were selling in India through dealers.  But now we have GNC India as our presence here. Regarding Nicolas Correa as a company, we are listed on the stock exchange market in Madrid for 27 years now, and we are focused on the production of milling machines.

How do you find Indian Market?

India has been a small but growing market for us for decades. In fact, I was trying to remember my first trip to India to seek to open the market was probably roughly 40 years ago. We have been trying to do, and we have done something for decades but it is only a few years ago when we started a new period in India, and this is when we have found the right way to increase our market share in this market in India. So we believe that it was an excellent opportunity for us to find a way to have an essential presence in the market. Now we provide Sales, After Sales and Application Support to our customers and we are creating a much wider support to our clients. Not only we are selling you machines, but we also give excellent service and application support according to your need so a complete solution.

How do you find customer support in India as compared to other global markets?

Every market is a different market. India has its peculiarities and different ways of doing things, but in every market, you must understand culture and sentiments of that particular market.  Every market has differences China is also different, and probably the Americans are different, and Europeans are different, so we only have to adapt ourselves to the need of the customers in the market. I think we have learned a lot about India now. There is a certain way of doing business with the Indian entrepreneurs.  You have to learn that, and you have to follow that.

Do you think Indian market is price sensitive?

Yes, the Indian market is very price sensitive this is true. Price is an important issue here. Again, the price is important everywhere, but here cost price comes first.  As soon as you sit with the customer, probably he would talk about price. In other markets perhaps they would talk about price later on during the conversation. But anyway doesn't matter that they talk at the beginning, or the end, the price is always an important issue.  India is a very sensitive market regarding pricing.

Does this mean that Indian buyers pay more attention to the pricing compared to the application of the machine?

I think that perhaps for any commodity, machine or specialty product; price is the critical issue. But with our technology, the customers will appreciate other things more. So when you go to a significant investment and very hi- tech, of course, the price is important, but some other issues are also important. We are getting some major business lately because of the technology we have, not because of our prices are cheaper than others. In fact, a machine tool investment of an individual is like a wedding; it’s not just buying it as a consumer good, and you forget. It's something that you will use for decades. So price is important, but the performance of the machine and excellent service is also very important.  I think technology is imperative and also the preventive maintenance that customers should do to the machines. They make a good investment, but if they don’t opt for proper maintenance, machine performance and reliability becomes lower and lower. So it is important that the customers improve their support investment day by day.

Are Indian machine tool builders at par with the global players?

Indian manufacturers here are having excellent machines in other segments but perhaps in another kind of machines, and not primarily in the machines that we produce.

What is your primary reason behind participating in IMTEX 2017?

Well, IMTEX is the largest machine tool show in India, so we must be here. We cannot afford not to be here, and we are satisfied with the response we get here. Our Indian team informed me that this exhibition is quite promising. Of course, we meet in an exhibition with the potential customer for the first time, but sometimes there is a big gap between the expectation and the reality.  We meet a potential customer, but eventually, it is most important that he buys the product.

Have you launched any products at IMTEX 2017?

Mr. Parag Alekar, the CEO, Nicolas Correa India Branch, answered us that, we had not launched any particular product for the IMTEX 2017 but whatever new launches we have from 1 or 2 years is exhibited here. We have displayed our latest technologies of the universal heads for which we are holding an international patent. We have presented in this show ‘the head’ which is the essential part of a milling machine. The head is in scale 1:1 and is not a real head.  But it is a replica with the similar movement as the real head. Hence it gives customers a real impression of the head and its functioning. We have two models of head that show how the head can move and how you can reach to every point of the part to be machined with every angle, so that’s interesting.

What is Nicolas Correa India’s vision for next five years?

We are working out on how to increase our presence here in India and so on. The truth is that India was not the number one market for us in the world as far as market share is concerned. But it has a lot of potentials, and perhaps in the coming years, it may become a major market for us in the world. In that case, we will have to invest more in India. The critical issue, of course, is workforce, so we have to upgrade the knowledge of our sales, service and application engineers.

As a country, India is changing a lot as I have said and I have seen a significant shift in India lately. So I think the Indian potentiality is growing. If we look at the number of machines sold here in India, we are a good reference for potential buyers as we have sold nearly 70 machines in last ten years. So this reference to some machines sold in India gives us the great advantage and will help in future as well. So I think the big and most difficult job has done and now we have to maintain that. We have a good customer base here which will bring us good business here in India, and it will be my pleasure to support this market personally and visit here from time to time.

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