Olikara Lighting wants to participate and grow along with India

“We are pleased with where we are against our milestones and goals,” says Anoop Olikara, Director, Olikara Lighting Towers Pvt. Ltd.
Like all big success stories, Olikara Lighting Towers had a humble beginning. Initially, it was tough as it built its products. But hard work and perseverance are paid off. Anoop Olikara shares their inspiring journey.
How do you see the performance of your company?When we started our company, we had a list of ambitious goals of building products. We provided our customers step-function improvements in productivity through the latest technology. We made products that are easy to use, and anyone can use the equipment with little or no training without causing damage to the equipment. Our products come with an international quality finish and aesthetic design which make them stand out amongst the pool of the best international offerings. We also provide a highest level of service where we always try to go the extra miles beyond our customers’ expectation.  It was tough initial years as we built our products, tested it and scoured the city for high-quality suppliers that could match our expectations and quality level.  Today, I can say we are pleased with where we are against our milestones and goals. The awareness of our brand and products continue to grow which reflect in our sales and customer satisfaction scores. Our team of engineers and operators work extremely hard to ensure that every machine is the best while our service and sales team go the distance to ensure every customer has the best experience using our products.
What products do you offer and how do you differentiate your products?Olikara Lighting Towers Pvt. Ltd. currently offers several portable lighting solutions. Dazzler, which illuminates up to 10 acres of land using a 9-metre telescopic tower, is our top of the line product. It is built to be versatile and flexible. It is ideal for big sites and productivity conscious customers who demand highly reliable machines of the highest quality. It is setup to be modular, hence offering customers the option of upgrading the machine at any time (very much like a computer that has its software or hardware upgraded after purchase).  The power consumed by the lights and auxiliary is optimised to ensure best electrical efficiency, thereby giving the best fuel consumption. Its electrical mast set-up allows for quicker, safer machine set-up while offering the option of remote operation. We hide all the interlocks and engine safeties and other complexities under a layer of simple operator controls to ensure that the machine can be operated safely with little training. This machine is designed to become the epicentre of every site with upcoming features to allow even further site integration, thus giving the site operators greater productivity improvements.
Then we have small telescopic light stands (Satellight) used for task lighting. These light stands are built to be extensions to the Dazzler machine. They provide additional focused light spots for specialised work spots. They offer daisy chaining and reduce the cable length requirements while improving the safety of the work area. These stands are manually raised to a maximum height of 9 feet and can accommodate a variety of luminaries and lamps.
We also have power distribution box (called PowerBox) which provides a socket extension kit for the Dazzler tower. This distribution box is again an extension of the Dazzler machine. It is meant to be plugged into the machine thus enabling the customer to run a number of electric tools with or without the lights on. There are a number of safety features on the box to ensure that the operator using the tool is kept safe from electrical surges on one side as well as ensuring the lighting tower is isolated from burnouts due improper use of the tools or broken wiring.
We are the approved partners of Bosch for selected electrical tools that work with our tower like rock breakers, chippers, cutters, blowers etc. We offer these tools along with our towers as a one-stop shop for the convenience of our customers.  We are working on new models and products which should be launched within the next few months. These products will be ground breaking and exciting for both our existing and potential customers.  What kind of competition do you face in the market?It is first important to understand that companies build products that serve a certain purpose and demonstrate value to a certain type of customers. With that in mind, we build higher-end products and serve the discerning customers that require the best in what we call “PQR” (productivity, quality and reliability).
Hence in our sector, we do have domestic and international competitors that have been serving the Indian market for over 20 years. We drive ourselves to be constantly innovative thereby building new generation machines that show a difference over those in the market (or as we like to say “be the orange to their apples”) and thereby offer one more productive option to the customers in the market.
Even though we may compete fiercely in the business environment, we always respect our competitors and try to maintain a friendly relationship with them. We believe that competition is always healthy and promotes better products for our customers while educating them on safer, more productive work practices.
What kind of innovations are you making in your products?“Productivity through technology” is our overarching goal. We work hard and spend a lot of time, researching and studying all types of technologies and then find ways to implement them cost effectively, thereby bringing increased productivity to our customers. So we are the first company in India to offer an electrical mast set-up as a standard offering in our machines. We design and build our own luminaries and reflectors using top of the line raw materials sourced from around the world, generating a light output that is of the highest quality. All the electrical products and electronics in the system are designed and assembled by us. This allows us to implement the concept of hardware upgrades post purchase (HUPP), which is again groundbreaking in equipment manufacturing in India. In the next few years, we will be unveiling our next-generation systems that will integrate technology deeply into our machines and offer a step function improvement in productivity and communication.
What is your future outlook for Olikara Lighting Towers?Our country is currently poised to grow rapidly, and our population — which is amongst the youngest in the world — will generate the base to help propel our nation into the ranks of the top western countries. With the Internet now closely linked to the growth of our nation, people will expect world-class, competitive services and products. All of this means that we need the best infrastructure set-up from roads and bridges to cell towers and data cable networks to water and sewage structures. The call for energy independence will push us to build large solar farms (like the one being built in western India which is the size of Manhattan) and wind farms with increased oil and natural gas exploration.
We believe to build world-class infrastructure. The infrastructure companies need to use world-class equipment that allow them to complete the projects on time, if not early, while protecting the people and environment. We are eagerly looking forward to participating and growing with our country.

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