Managing Director, Ebco
Ebco was founded in 1963 as a Tool Room and subsequently diversified into furniture hardware and has ever since become India’s leading manufacturer in the industry. The company’s strengths include a range of core competencies in manufacturing, an ever widening product range, stringent quality standards, affordable prices and an all-india distribution network. In an interview with Arabian Defence, Geoffrey Nagpal, Managing Director, Ebco Pvt. Ltd., talks about the company’s operations and business.
Founded in 1963 as a Tool Room, Ebco has diversified into furniture hardware and has ever since become India’s leading manufacturer in the industry. What are the major milestones in the company’s six-decade journey?
The company was started as a Tool Room in 1963 later growing into component manufacturer in 1965. The first Ordnance Factory item – 7.62 Link Cartridge Metallic Belt – was developed in 1968 and since then over 1 billion numbers have been manufactured subsequently. Links for all sizes of rounds including the 12.7mm, 23mm & 30mm were developed. The old plant was shifted to Vasai with a much larger space in 2010. The Palghar plants were built in 1988 & 2003.
Could you talk about the range of products and services offered by the company? How much vast is your distribution network?
We diversified into Furniture Fittings in 1987 and have since become India’s leading hardware brand with three plants manufacturing a large range of hardware items for office, home furniture fittings bed ,wardrobe fittings & accessories, kitchen systems & accessories etc. We have an all India distribution network with 30 distributors covering every state and supplying to over 4500 retail outlets.
Technical Director, Ebco
Ebco’s strengths include a range of core competencies in manufacturing and stringent quality standards. Could you elaborate?
Our core competency lies in the development and mass production of critical, sheet metal components having load-deflection specifications, like cartridge links. We have in-house R&D, state-of-the-art design department, a world class Tool Room with manufacturing facilities and an independent quality control department with its own testing lab. We have used these skills to also develop several thousand furniture hardware products over the last 35 years.
Could you talk about the production capabilities of the company? Could you share the details of the warehousing and manufacturing plants?
Ebco manufactures all its press tools, injection and die cast moulds. We have three independent manufacturing plants with pressing and assembly automation facilities situated in Vasai and Palghar, with over a 100 power presses going up to 160 Ton capacity. We have our own in-house heat treatment and phosphating plants. We are certified in three standards; ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO45001 for quality management, environmental management and organizational health and safety management. We have five warehouses and a sixth is under construction.
How do you make use of latest design and manufacture technologies?
Ebco is a responsible software compliant company. We have the latest design software for 2D design as well as 3D solid modelling. Computer Aided Design gets converted into Computer Aided Manufacturing. Our Tool Room has several CNC machines for milling, turning, sparking erosion, wire cutting and laser cutting. These machines have the latest high speed features without compromising on accuracy and degree of complication.
Technical Director, Ebco
How strong are the company’s export operations? What are the products on export and who are the major clients?
We have exported different sizes of Link Cartridge Metallic Belts. Hardware export is also there to Italy, UAE, and Sri Lanka etc.
Ebco’s manufacturing operations have been designed to have the least impact on the environment. Could you shed more light onto this?
Ebco has been ISO 14001 certified for the last 7 years. We have our own Rain Water Harvesting installations with 500,000 litres installed capacity for drinking purposes. We have our own Effluent Treatment Plants to treat all Liquid and Gaseous emissions. 96% of our water is recycled. All waste, like paper, plastic, oil, metal and alloy scrap is segregated and recycled. Any hazardous waste is disposed through a Govt. accredited waste disposal agency. We have solar generation in all three manufacturing plants with an installed capacity of 500 kwp.
