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Hydraform began to expand beyond Africa with Hydraform India in 1995 and quickly
reached out to both South America and the South Pacific. Today the company has
machines operating on four continents.
G
iven that the Hydraform Building System is well suited
to emerging markets, the company began its expansion
with a thrust into Asia by establishing Hydraform India Pvt
Ltd in 1995. From there, operations have reached into the
Indian subcontinent.
The modus operandi is quite simple: identify a target
market, get one machine into that market and then wait
for theword to get aroundand for the orders to start rolling
in. This has been the basis of Hydraform’s fairly extensive
expansion across India as well as into Bangladesh and
Pakistan. The process is still at an early stage in Sri Lanka.
In the late 1990s, Hydraform began to focus across
the Atlantic on Central and South America. Early on
the model was one of direct distribution, but due to the
political turmoil in the region we were forced to focus
instead on supporting local in-country agents and
distributors.
Today we have machines in Ecuador, Honduras,
Nicaragua and Venezuela. The company’s long-term
goal is to continue developing individual markets in
Central and South America.
Another area in which Hydraform has made a huge
impact is in the South Pacific, specifically in Australia,
New Zealand and the Philippines. Reports coming from
these markets indicate that there is huge potential –
provided a local support infrastructure is in place.
The eventual goal of Hydraform’s international
expansion programme is to extend the reach of the
company’s products and services to cover the entire
developing world and selected parts of the developed
world. As with anything new it was tough going at first,
but gradually Hydraform’s interlocking technology
started gaining acceptance and today the company
has a wide presence across the globe.
Success in India
Having come first, the Indian operation has provided a
template for expansion into other regions of the world. In
that market, it was necessary to customise the product
and application thereof to meet the requirements
of the local building industry. Hydraform technology
quickly became the preferred and most cost-effective
solution for social sector initiatives such as post-disaster
rehabilitation and shelter programmes, mass housing
projects and employment generation, as well as in social
and economic empowerment programmes instituted
by aid agencies and the government.
Hydraform Global
An expanding
Global Footprint