What is the current market scenario of MEP in India?
Before 2008, the industry was highly fragmented. Each concept - Electrical, Firefighting, Plumbing, IBMS, and HVAC, required a separate company or contractor. Customer requests led leading players to realise industry needs and integrate all services under one umbrella of Turnkey MEP services.
There are still multiple conflicts that arise during the process of individual installation of each service or solution. The most common being overlap, over installation, and timeline and quality hindrance. However, now the industry is seeing a revolution with turnkey MEP becoming the new standard and encompassing all services, making it easier for conflicts to be easily eliminated.
Sterling and Wilson foresaw this trend early to become a frontrunner and leader in the industry. We integrated all MEP offerings under one umbrella to allow for an ease of operation and help mitigate the conflicts that arose earlier.
Sterling & Wilson’s long term growth targets for MEP segment?
The MEP business division at Sterling and Wilson comprises of HVAC, Electrical, Fire Fighting, Plumbing, IBMS, Industrial Fire and Safety, Clean Room EPC, Industrial EPC and Operations and Maintenance. As opposed to competitors, we built on in-house capabilities and grew organically.
Today, we have the largest team of engineers at 1,200, with the services integrated under one MEP head in four regions. Electrical enjoys the largest share of the market, followed by HVAC, Fire Fighting & Plumbing and IBMS Services. Of the orders the division receives, 15% - 20% are for Turnkey MEP, whereas a large share is still received for each sub-vertical. While awareness is on the rise, there is a lot to be done to create more awareness among the customers for the same.
In India, Sterling and Wilson is a leader with a presence across sectors - Commercial Complexes, IT Parks, Hospitals, Airports, Hotels, Malls, Multiplexes and Industrial. We are also present in residential electrical, for large scale projects. In 2006, we entered the Global market and have successfully completed projects in West Africa, Middle East and Asia, where our presence is growing strongly.
As a business, MEP has been seeing a consistent 15% year-on-year growth. We are currently targeting a 20-25% CAGR in the coming years to reach a turnover of INR 4,000 crore by 2020.
Your current order book position?
Our current year target is INR 2,200 crore and we are well on course towards reaching that goal, with many large projects under finalization stages in the coming months.
Your thoughts on how successful is PPP model in India?
Till a few years earlier, the PPP model would have been deemed a failure, but the renewed interest from the Government has resulted in its becoming an ideal model for development. It definitely holds immense potential and has seen success in a number of infrastructure projects. However, the model could still be developed further to become more transparent and become a benchmark that can be emulated internationally.