A name of high quality specialised paints, coatings and adhesives Sanjay Deshmankar, the owner of Lucknow-based Duromax Hitech Coatings, has never been hurrying to upturn his business volume with an aggressive marketing blitzkrieg or another way of adventure. He believes in taking careful steps and a systematic approach so that the delivery of the products is smooth with better stabilisation. The success of the products, where there is a huge entry barrier, speaks his many years long hard work for gaining technical knowledge,
demands of the market and dedication to realise his dream. He has freely allowed the phase of trials and errors to ensure what is delivered will be infallible.
After completing graduation in mechanical engineering from MNNIT, Allahabad in 1983, Sanjay Deshmankar joined KG Khosla Compressors with an assignment in its industrial compressor division. Two years later, he joined Larsen & Toubro (L&T), one of India’s largest engineering and vastly diversified companies. An application engineer, at L&T EUTECTIC Sanjay, was involved in the repair and maintenance of plants and machinery. He worked for eight years in the engineering giant, where he learned marketing of specialised Repair and maintenance welding electrodes and other specialised products.
Always a learner, by the time, he gained considerable exposure to the markets of various industrial products used for repair and maintenance of industrial establishments. After this, he left the job and chose to be a trader taking dealer and distributorship from Premium Energy Transmission, a erstwhile business group of Greaves Cotton for gearboxes and fluid couplings, L&T for the eutectic system, ITW Devcon and Henkel Loctite for high-performance polymeric maintenance and repair coatings, adhesives and putties etc. Sanjay’s domain until then was in the marketing of specialised industrial products. As an application engineer with vast experience in marketing, he realised, entering into a specialised manufacturing sector with considerable product flexibilities to meet the requirement of a diverse customer base was a logical extension. “Having experience in marketing, I studied the needs of the customers and looked backwards to work. Then I settled on polymers by developing skill for handling it. I found it was important to develop the product and skills for the application of the same. This involved a lot of studies,” he says. In 2005, he began to look at some sort of repair and maintenance for polymer-based products like specialised paints and coatings, which are high-performance products for industrial applications. He knew that was heavily challenging also. Being in a specialised product with a complex process of application, the business wouldn’t be so easy, he understood the fact. Yet, he chose to be in, with his quest for finding solutions to complex issues. Incidentally, the Internet trend was also beginning to catch up, enabling users to search for knowledge and required information.
The Internet brought a wonderful change. Knowledge seekers had an easy way. Anyone with a passion for doing something could find their way through internet support, which was useful for gaining product and market knowledge. Before this, he went through many phases of learning, which included a short duration course at IIT-Mumbai and correspondence with other institutions. “The learning process helped me a lot,” he recalls. He had a burning desire for developing a product, a kind of backward look to make further use of his experience in marketing. Many people whom he knew also supported him. He could gather trustable feedback from them. Product development was a new experience, a learning experience, more than taking it as a challenge. He did a lot of research, trials and testing. His manufacturing venture took six years to see a stabilization and convince himself to make it worthy of a brand.
Knowledge of a product is very important. “I believe in continuous reading of books and available pieces of literature to upgrade the knowledge of any product one aims to make until gaining a sound domain knowledge of it. That would help the entrepreneur solve the future challenges,” he avers. A product thus developed would be able to beat all adverse weathers, he opines. “That was an opportunity for me to understand the market, customers and scope for doing something that would synergise the marketing experience,” he reminisces while dwelling on how he has succeeded in his complex product developing initiative. Incidentally, he was lucky to have enough facilities at his home in the early stage, to which he owes his father. Since he knew the market and application, the effort on product development could be logically beneficial. A specialized paint with a different skill-set for application of it was no small challenge. He felt the need of meeting the expectation of customers and having the capability of tailor-making it as per the varying needs, before launching the products. The journey was difficult, yet worth cherishing.
After spending six years on the development and stabilization process, in 2011, he started building a brand for his product, which is complex, but innovative, in terms of application, but a high-performer product for almost every industry. He designed a slow and steady approach to make it better user friendly. In the late eighties and nineties, many multinationals entered the Indian market, which hadn’t yet started growing, still had huge demands. They failed in the market for multiple reasons like unfriendly weather conditions for the products in India, lack of skill-sets for applying them, poor cost viability and shortage of appropriate products for different requirements. Sanjay made a thorough analysis on these aspects, including a close check on conventional and alternate product solutions available in the current market, before preparing himself to beat the inadequacies. Today, Duromax can deliver highquality products manufactured by itself with customization, a team of application engineers and ensure comprehensive services – be it on the surface, walls, roofs made of metal and concrete, machines, containers, pipelines or any space where protection from heat and chemical reaction is required for durable existence. “We handhold our dealers and train them to use the product so that they become not only business partners but also independent contractors with the supply of necessary products by us,” Sanjay avers. Diverse ranges of Duromax Sealerkote, which are known for adhesion strength, surface tolerance corrosion and heat resistances in varying degrees, give protective liners for various surfaces.
Duromax Abrakote and Cerakote, used on pumps, pipelines, hoppers, slurry lines, valves, chutes, heat exchangers, screw conveyors, etc. are known for their low friction abrasion and chemical resistance. Various ranges of Duromax Corokote are applied on heat shields, chimneys, stoves, radiators, exhaust pipes, radiators, hot fluid pipelines, boilers, incinerators, etc while Duromax Chemkote is applied on tank linings, MS structures, concrete structures, metal roof sheet trenches, cooling towers, battery rooms, etc. Its solar heat reflective coatings are ready to use high-quality systems, when used on roofing materials or exterior walls, reflect sunlight and prevent the roof from heat even in peak summer.
This product works on the principle of constant rejection of UV, visible and infrared rays. As a result below the roof remains cooler and the building remains stronger for a longer period. Similarly, the company has polymer flooring that protects concrete bases of factories from thermal shock, moisture, damages from foot traffic, heavy lead impact and chemical spills. Besides, the company manufactures general putties for wear and heat resistance and metal putties for preventing pitting damages, pipelines leakage arrest, repairing the crack on machine parts, etc.
He feels gratified himself for having created jobs for many people with skill in handling the special set of industrial products directly and through the franchise model.
Such a product was not readily available in the market at that time. Now there are large companies like ITW Devcon, Henkel Loctite are in this segment. The product required a special team of skill-sets for application at each client site, necessitating the development of a network of application engineers. It requires a team of talents of a different calibre. Each one in the team requires training to market and apply the product to the right application.
Sanjay has never been hurrying to upturn his business volume with an aggressive marketing blitzkrieg or another way of adventure. He believes in taking careful steps and a systematic approach so that the delivery and application of the product is smooth with better stabilization. He has freely allowed the phase of trials and errors to ensure what is delivered will be infallible. Of course, he had an alternate revenue source as a dealer of various engineering products, a platform for him to reach out to the right market. The market for the product is huge and he is optimistic about sustainable growth since he is committed to offering a high-quality product with a high level of service quality. With entry barriers in terms of technical knowhow and barriers for customization, future competition is not a matter of worry. There is huge untapped market potential in organized and unorganized sectors.
Now the second generation is in place. His two sons are now part of his venture. While the eldest one is a mechanical engineer the younger one is a chemical engineer. “They have understood whatever I did, as a result of my efforts to make them learn what I did in the process of developing the range of products,” he points out and adds: “With six-seven years experience in the business, they have learned the nuances of our business.” He has big hope from the next generation. Sanjay has built his business on core values of value creation for clients, delivery of quality products, top quality service, quick innovation, integrity and sustainability. The stage is set for a great future.
