Headquartered in USA and with installations in over 60 countries, UNIPOWER LLC offers solutions ranging from: rectifiers and converters, distribution panels, battery chargers, power supplies, system controllers, DC power systems and batteries. UNIPOWER recently launched its operations in India. In this exclusive interaction with T&D India, John Ely, Vice President – Marketing, UNIPOWER, discusses why India that is witnessing massive growth in all areas of infrastructure, represents a very important market for UNIPOWER.
We understand that UNIPOWER participated in the mega trade show Elecrama 2018. How was Elecrama 2018 helpful as a launch pad to UNIPOWER’s Indian operations?
Elecrama provided UNIPOWER an opportunity to authentically connect with key decision makers and showcase each of the diverse solutions and product offerings. As a world leading provider of dependable high-efficiency power electronics and energy conversion systems and power supplies, Elecrama allowed UNIPOWER to understand the needs of the market and the solutions necessary to deliver the wants and needs of the customer.
UNIPOWER has a diverse product portfolio that includes distribution boards, DC power systems and several others. What would be your main offerings to India, at least to start with?
Our NPS and IPS solutions are sought-after in North America, Europe and South America. With a diverse catalog of solutions, our focus is to offer rectifiers and converters, distribution panels, battery chargers, power supplies, system controllers, DC power systems and batteries.
UNIPOWER has a wide customer base comprising renewable energy, data centres, telecom, etc. What would be your target audience in India?
Our target markets in India will start with telecommunications and renewables as we have a growing customer base recently established in those areas. As we further expand our markets globally in data centers and electric vehicles, we expect the markets in India to follow.
In particular, how do you view the high-potential Indian electric vehicle market?
We understand that a very large manufacturer in India is investing heavily in the EV market. The potential in India would be substantial for us, as UNIPOWER focuses on the DC engines that provide power for recharging onboard and offboard. The potential is large, regardless of any EV charging standards that are agreed upon.
Could you discuss your business and growth strategy for India, especially because India, though a big market, is also a price-conscious one?
UNIPOWER is a global company, with manufacturing localized to suit each market. Asia is already a large part of our total portfolio and is very similar to India, both in product design requirements and pricing levels.
India represents huge growth opportunity as it expands all areas of infrastructure.
We understand that UNIPOWER recently launched the Guardian Bulk M42 DC. Tell us more about this product. Do you plan to market this in India as well?
The M42 Guardian Bulk 1200A DC power system is a new mid-range rack-mounted system dedicated to servicing data centers, cable and telecom markets worldwide. It is a 10RU high 19” power system that provides a bulk output of -48VDC and is configurable to incorporate six rectifier shelves.
The M42 is not subjective to one region or territories. We are proud to offer it in each of our major markets.
Globally, what are your major markets? In particular, which are your major Asian markets?
UNIPOWER is a global company focused on North and Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. To be specific, UNIPOWER is focused on China, Singapore and India.
How do you see the way ahead for UNIPOWER in India, say in the next 4-5 years? Do you think India could have a respectable share in UNIPOWER’s global business, in the medium term?
India represents huge growth opportunity as it expands all areas of infrastructure. When the social infrastructure expands, the communications (and most notably, wireless communications) expand as well. Our core business is still in the wireless communications vertical, and we see India making up a large percentage of that base market for UNIPOWER over the next five years. Outside of that core market, we see the new market potential for both renewables and EV. India could represent a larger percentage of that global piece for us, as the region seems poised for above average growth in these markets.
