Christchurch Firm Gains Indian Link

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31085, 14 June 1966, Page 1

Christchurch Firm Gains Indian Link

The Christchurch engineering firm, C.W.F. Hamilton and Company, Ltd., had signed a technical aid agreement worth tens«of*thousands of pounds of overseas funds with an Indian company, said the general manager of Hamilton’s (Mr E. P. Chapman) yesterday.

The Indian firm, Escorts, Ltd., of New Delhi, would manufacture in India, under licence to Hamilton’s, a variety of earth-moving machines. These would include road graders, hydraulic excavators and hydraulic loaders.

Also under the agreement, the Indian company would manufacture under licence, Hamilton’s range of hydraulic components, such as pumps, control valves and cylinders. Mr Chapman said the agreement was signed in New Delhi last month by the chairman of directors of Escorts, Ltd. (Mr H. P. Nanda) and handed over to the High Commisioner for New Zealand in India (Mr J. E. Farrell). One of Hamilton’s engineers (Mr R. C. Turnbull) was in New Delhi at the time of the signing to get initial planning under way.

Mr Chapman said that Hamilton’s would supply one or more engineers for from three to six months later this year to help the Indians in starting their manufacturing programme. The Indian firm might send some engineers to Hamilton’s Christchurch plant for technical training. The profit for Hamilton's would come from royalties as well as from certain component parts Hamilton’s would supply in the early years of the agreement. “This should be big," said Mr Chapman. “India is a market approaching 500 million persons and permission to enter into manufacturing licences is very sparingly given by the Indian Government.”

Mr Chapman said that under the agreement, Escorts, Ltd., was entitled to export this equipment to any part of the world. Because of very low wage rates and the recent devaluation of the rupee, this equip ment, made in India, would be very highly competitive in other markets, he said. Escorts, Ltd., is an old established Indian company which owns a group of modem engineering factories in the New Delhi area. These factories employ several thousand people in the manufacture of tractors, motor-cycles. X-ray equipment and components for the automobile industry.

The photograph shows (left to right seated): The chairman of directors of Escorts, Ltd, (Mr H. P. Nanda) handing over the agreement to the High Commissioner for New Zealand in India (Mr J. E. Farrell), at a ceremony in New Delhi last month. A Christchurch engineer (Mr R. C. Turnbull) of C. W. F. Hamilton and Company, Ltd, is seated on the right.