With the aim of “Creating performance together”, Serac India opens doors to its new office

The packaging solutions market is in a constant state of evolution, shaped by new consumption trends, emerging regulations, and a shifting geopolitical context. With its broad international influence, extensive expertise, and strong local presence, Serac truly understands how to adapt to these market specificities as well as to the needs of its customers. The company offers services like packaging machinery, filling and capping, filling and sealing, and multifunction block and line integration among others. It caters to products that include dairy, syrups, drinks, oils, sauces, household, personal care, and much more.

Embarking on a new journey

On 18 November 2022, Serac inaugurated its new office in Pune, India to focus on after-sales services.

The inauguration started with a tour of their new office located in Viman Nagar, Pune. Gracing the event were eminent personalities including, Rose Graffin, chairman, the board of Serac holding from the US, Philippe Farrugia, managing director from France, Serac group, Paul Heskens, managing director, Serac Asia from Malaysia and Deepak Kamat, managing director, Serac India.

The inaugural event continued at Hotel Blue Diamond and was kicked off with a vibrant dance performance followed by various fun activities for the delegates to pump up their energy levels. The highlight performance of the day was the Lavani, a Maharashtrian dance form which was thoroughly enjoyed by all the delegates.

Kamat thanked the dignitaries for traveling all the way to attend the grand opening of the new office. He enthusiastically introduced the employees of the new office to the audience. Informing everyone about the new office, he said that with the growth of the Serac team, the need for a bigger office space emerged which led to the establishment of Serac India’s latest workspace in Pune.

He added, “The intention behind the new office is that we have a team that is growing now and from a headcount of five we have grown to around eleven now. The machine footprints and business are growing and are expected to grow further. The intention behind the opening of the office was to grow in line with the market and ensure that we are on track.”

The location and facilities

Spread across an area of 1400 square feet, the Serac office is well equipped with all the facilities for accommodating nearly 15 employees. For enhanced productivity, it includes dedicated cabins for the managing director and customer service manager as well as departments such as after-sales service, sales, and service technical support. According to Kamat, the primary focus of the new facility is on invoicing the after-sales after the equipment is sold in India in INR.

India- The land of opportunities

Talking about the new office, Heskens, “India is one of our biggest markets and the possibilities are endless. We believe really that we are making the right step at the right moment. We see that India is developing at a very fast pace, and we want to be part of it. Being the managing director for Asia, I can proudly say that I’m very pleased with what my team has put up today. They all have done a great job.”

Talking about the packaging industry in India, he said that he is witnessing a lot of growth momentarily happening and it is only for the good as Serac has been associated with India for quite a long time. He added, “This is the first step to our three-to-five-year plan. And hopefully, in five years this Pune office would be already too small and open a few satellite offices to get closer to our customers who are involved. We already have people working from Hyderabad as well.”

Talking about Serac’s history, Farrugia said, “With over a 140-million-euro turnover worldwide, Serac is a globally recognized international company. Historically with its roots initiating in France, we today are flourishing worldwide with over 20 nationalities and 14 subsidiaries. Our founder Graffin had the vision to broaden Serac’s horizon all over the map and succeeded to do so with ideation and patience. From the US to Brazil to Malaysia and now India. We now own an office anywhere and everywhere our customer resides to provide the most efficient and varied services in every domain starting from dairy, and personal care to paint and agrochemical as well.”

Elaborating on the reason behind choosing Pune as the location for their latest office, he said, “We believe in providing service to our clients while also providing convenience to our employees. And with the agenda to keep all our employees motivated we initiate our first step here in Pune and soon plan to expand and spread Serac all over the nation.”

Impressed by the Serac India team, Graffin said, “Being invited to India, although was a long journey to give my blessing to the newest addition to our Serac family was an honor. And in honesty, I’ll say that I truly am proud of my Indian team. It's very nice to see how committed they are to building Serac and how much they believe in Serac under the leadership of Deepak Kamat. We need more people like that, who believe in themselves. And I'm sure we’ll find more such people as people in India are very intelligent, and I only found beauty and nice people here.”

Remembering her late husband and founder of Serac, Jean-Jacques Graffin, she concluded, “I cannot do this without thinking about JJ, what he would say. He is here and is extremely proud of this moment. We will work hard to ensure that Serac will continue to change people's lives and JJ’s legacy will continue as we open offices. It is a great honor and I give Serac India the blessing to have all kinds of prosperity shortly.”

Maintaining long-standing client relationships

Serac maintains a fruitful relationship with all its clients, who are eager to continue working with the company.

Sharing their experience of working with Serac, Anant Chitale, partner, Chitale Dairy said, “Working in the dairy and sweets industry since 1939, we recently established our association with Serac and will be installing machines to assist with our milk filling in PET bottle needs.” Happy with Serac’s expansion to Pune, he said that he was glad this shift happened as it will provide them with a nearby one-stop solution with ease and convenience.

Sanket Shah, country engineering manager, Castrol India talked about their 26-year-old bond with Serac. He said, “Our journey with Serac started back in 1996 with the first-ever high-speed machinery in Silvasa to now investing in several types of machinery. With this new establishment of Serac in Pune, I believe that this shift will provide fruitful results. As the bond of any machinery doesn’t end after its purchase and having a unit here in Pune will only reduce our waiting time for spare parts and provide faster support and services.”

Devashis Sarkar, project and engineering manager, Castrol India congratulated Serac on setting up the new office and said, “This is a very important move in terms of development. We have been associated with Serac for a long and are happy with the relationship we have developed over the years. We are very pleased with all the equipment that is delivered to us and are looking forward to a great bond in the future as well.”

Insights into Serac’s future

Talking about Serac India’s future plans, Kamat added, “Serac is targeting an after-sales growth of 100% in the next three years. The plan is to grow the business to a level wherein we can start manufacturing our lower range of machines in India. By 2026-2027 we target to have a small factory in India with a small manufacturing setup for our lower-end machines such as semi-automatic machines to cater to customers who are actively looking for good quality price-sensitive machines,” he concludes.