BCS, tailor-made solutions for Indian agriculture
The Abbiategrasso company has been present in India since 2004. After a difficult start, linked above all to the particular characteristics of local agriculture, BCS India has gradually seen its weight grow even outside the borders of Punjab, the Indian state where its branch is located
The BCS Indian subsidiary was born from an intuition of the engineer Fabrizio Castoldi, the current owner of the company, who in the early 2000s, after a visit to India in search of new production opportunities, realized the great development potential offered by the local market. Thus, after obtaining various confirmations about the profitability of establishing a presence there and after drafting a business plan with sustainable machine costs from the Indian market, in 2004 Castoldi decided to make that intuition concrete by giving life to the Ludhiana plant (Punjab). The first years were difficult - almost all of the components (90%) continued to be produced in Italy while the production quota of the Punjab plant did not exceed 10% - but in subsequent years that ratio was gradually reversed. The first 4 years of business were difficult because BCS had to adapt to the particularities of the crops and the way of doing agriculture in India. Having acknowledged what was not working, the company prepared the appropriate corrective actions, and starting from 2008, this allowed it to increase the penetration force. But the numbers still didn’t take off. The real trend reversal occurred in 2011, when BCS began to significantly increase the production of machines and components. This robust growth, culminating last October, came when the Lombard team expanded the Ludhiana plant by creating a production and logistics plant that extends over three levels for a total surface area of 6000 square metres. Today BCS India has about 75 associates, with a production intended for India and countries that have agricultural systems with similar characteristics to the Indian one. In particular, the Punjab branch specialized in the manufacture of special machines for cutting, harvesting and binding grains. However, the flagship of BCS India (as well as BCS Italia) is the 622 motor mower with a reaper-binder system.
On this machine, the manufacturer has offers both a three-wheeled version with operator seated on a seat, and a four-wheeled version with steering wheel and operator on board. Today BCS India is well integrated in the Punjab production fabric, as well as outside its own district. It is a company known and valued in those Indian states that need to use the machines offered by the brand.
It collaborates with various universities for the development and research of agro-mechanical technologies designed on the specific needs of Indian agriculture.
Among other things, it is precisely these research institutions that propose to the Indian Ministry of Agriculture any subsidies for the purchase of agricultural machinery by local farmers.
After 15 years it is possible to say that the BCS brand has become one of the protagonists of agricultural mechanization in India.
