'Boiler' woman burns down old tradition

WOMAN OF SUBSTANCE/ Homai Engineer

So what if she started off with Rs 40,000 and the world against her. So what if she tried to 'iron out' the age-old belief that making boilers was no woman's job? Sixty-five year old Homai Engineer, chairman and MD of Industrial Boilers feels that she has just arrived and has a long way to go.

Talking to Business Standard, Homai says, "Cling to your dreams and do not allow them to wane. Success will eventually follow."

"My husband and I started Industrial Boilers in 1980s to tackle the burning issue of fuel-efficient boilers, which were then imported from UK," says Homai. "We received a lot of support from GIDC and GSFC," she asserts.

"Initially we had to wait for six months to convince the clients that we could generate world-class quality before our first boiler was sold," Engineer says.

The company sold boilers on word-of-mouth basis and today it has grown to be the largest boiler manufacturer in Gujarat, based in Vapi, with an annual turnover of Rs 37 crore, which is likely to touch Rs 40 crore this year.

With a view to expand its activities, the company has acquired 25 acres land in Maharashtra.

Homai's father-in-law was into boiler consultancy business and learnt the nitigritties of boiler manufacturing from him. "We Parsees are a close knit family and it took over 2-3 years to convince them that I could handle production of an entire factory," she quips.

The company is into tailor-made boilers and small boilers cost Rs 10 lakh and above while the project cost of power generation boilers is about Rs 1 crore and more. The power cost is about Rs 2 per unit. The company has 100 workers in the office and 200 at the factory site.

Despite receiving national and international awards,such as Best Enterpreneurship award, Outstanding Women Professional, National Mahila Excellence award, Dadabhai Navroji International award, Best Citizen of India-1998 and Netaji Subhashchandra Bose National award, she has managed to keep a low profile, away from the media glare.

Industrial Boilers has its exports wingspan to countries like Bangladesh, Tanzania, Bangladesh, east Africa, Nepal, Kenya among others. Major clients include Thermex and CVL. In India, their client list includes Delta Paper Mills in Andhra Pradesh, Imperial Dyeing in Surat, Milkfoods in New Delhi and Gulshan Sugar and Chemicals in UP.

"Our technical capability is backed by sustained in-house R&D, where we test different type of fuels like heavy oils, coal, lignite and especially agriculture waste fuels, which has tremendous potential," she says.

In Sri Lanka, Industrial Boilers has set up 1.5 MW power project, which is functional since two years and the power generated here is supplied to certain villages. "The fuel is generated from Glaceria plant which is agro waste," Engineer informs. Further she adds that in Malaysia and Thailand, there were only oil fired boilers and by using agriculture waste fired boilers, we brought down the steam cost by one fourth.

Engineer also established IB Turbo in Noida to manufacture steam-turbines in 2001. The company produces back pressure turbines of 700 KW for captive power plants which she aims to increase to 3 MW this year. "The annual turnover of IB Turbo is Rs 5-6 crore, which will increase to Rs 10 crore this year, with expansion work going on in Noida," according to Engineer.

About her future plans she says, "We are participating in Hannover fair in Germany, which is considered to be Mecca for industrial fairs, and we plan to extend our international activities thereon."