The Tractor Tycoon In accordance with Make in India, International Tractors Ltd manufacturing facility, rolls out 1,000-plus tractor variants

A desire to connect with farmers at the grass root level soon blossomed into a full-fledged business idea. The Indian agri ecosystem is characterized by unique farmer demands which are dynamic in nature. These demands change according to regional as well as crop centric requirements of farmers across the country. "We decided to religiously work on farmers' feedback and this approach directed us to customize our product portfolio that address farmer requirements with powerful engines, superior transmissions and precise hydraulics to deliver highest customer satisfaction," said Raman Mittal, joint managing director, International Tractors Ltd.

In order to deliver best quality standards in farm machinery, Mittal decided to develop everything in-house that goes into making a tractor. "This led us to win farmer's trust and eventually establish the world's largest tractor plant in a small town of Hoshiarpur in Punjab," he recalls.

In accordance with Make in India, its manufacturing facility today, rolls out the widest range of 1,000-plus tractor variants in 20-120 HP as well as 70-plus advanced implements.

Globally, it has expanded into 150 countries including Germany, Finland, Portugal, Iceland, Czech Republic as well as leads in countries such as Belgium and France. "We are connected with 2.25 lakh customers in the export markets and have already breached an unprecedented feat of clocking 35,000 tractor exports from India."

Migration from Hoshiarpur in search of employment opportunities is one of the biggest problems faced by youth. "As we are deeply connected to our roots, we decided to develop a relatively remote area of and generate employment opportunities for people in the state, so that people don't need to move out of their state. Over the decades, we have never felt the small town has posed any challenge, in fact we have grown significantly in terms of recruiting talented manpower at our manufacturing facility," he added.

Over the years, the company has been balancing conventional marketing techniques with the rapidly growing digitalisation. "We have introduced an Agro Solutions tractor and implemented a rental app to ensure farmers have easy access to advanced machinery and increase their productivity as well as income. Our state specific official website helps farmers of a particular state to check products that are best suitable for their native state," he explained.

Besides, interacting with farmers through various social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram to deliver more brand related information is one practice that has helped the company stay more connected with the farmers.

Factsheet:

· Year of inception of the company - 1996

· No. of employees –4000+

· Head office location – Karkardooma, Delhi (Regd. office)