when squeezing out toothpaste have you ever wondered how it went inside the tube compressed air did the trick and its quite possible the compressor was manufactured by coimbatorebased elgi equipments more than two million of its compressors are running in 120 countriesthe story begins with bus driver l r govindaswamy who in the preindependence era went on to own a fleet of 300 buses postindependence with nationalization progressively bringing in restrictions the group decided to exit that business it had manufacturing capabilities related to automotive services such as tyre retreading engine repair and bus body building it had also built an air compressor to inflate bus tyres the compressor business grew manifold after elgi equipments was formed in 1960posteconomic reforms in the 1990s the group decided to focus on just two businesses manufacturing automotive service equipment and air compressors we kept the automotive equipment indiacentric and offered it as a onestopsolution for the compressor business we realized we had to really invest as our competitors were mncs and the top two had already entered india to remain relevant we had to build technology manufacturing systems and competency but the cost was significant and the indian market at 3 of the global market was not big enough recalls jairam varadaraj md elgi equipments limitedthey decided to build a world class company that journey started in the early part of this century elgi equipments is now the sixth largest in the world its next target is to get in the top three we built our own technology to world class standards manufacturing capital equipment critical for running factories and selling it under our own brand through our own network in advanced markets such as europe and america today we can beat the best in the world in product design says jairamto become globally competitive elgi decided it had to know not just the how but also the why one can get the knowhow through a licence from any existing player but none will disclose the why the foundation of the technology at the level of science that is important to build next generation machines we had to understand the why to master the how we partnered with universities all over the world and individual experts did our own experimentation and failed multiple times in the process we learned the why when a european brand fails it is forgiven whereas an unknown brand with a madeinindia tag will never be forgiven if it fails we had to be better than the best says jairamquality is key and is practised as religion in the company across all levels and to ensure all employees are aligned elgi made a promise to protect the standard of living of bluecollar workers by transforming the entire method of compensation it is defined and cocreated by the company and the employees as a basket that now contains 390 items including vegetables haircuts school fees and uniforms vacations and spiritual expenses every year employees go to specified shops