Dr Wolfhart Hauser
CEO, Intertek Group
There are a variety of reasons for Dr Wolfhart Hauser, Chief Executive Officer, Intertek Group to call on India. A German who has spent over 30 years in the testing, quality and certification industry, he is here to promote his business and expand his base in the country. ?Business is like a puzzle of thousand different pieces where you have to get things together to give it a right structure? and that is why I am here in India, says Hauser.
Hauser was in India to set up a modern food-testing lab at Gurgaon at an investment of
Rs 10 crore to provide testing services to food processing industry in the region. Intertek offers a range of quality inspection and testing services world over. It is a leading provider of quality and safety solutions serving a wide range of industries around the world.
?In India, our laboratories are located in Mumbai, Mangalore, Kakinada, Kandla, Jamnagar, Chennai and other locations. We offer laboratory, inspection serving textiles, electrical, chemical and food industries.?
Today, not all the products are required to go through testing but medical products and toys are obliged to go a third party testing, says this CEO. There is a legislation in the US for toys and you need to have a accredited lab test report. For example we have a toy testing laboratory cum playground for kids in Chicago. Here a group of children are given toys to play with and psychologists are asked to observe them. With that we can make a conclusion about what sort of toys children love to play with and whether there are any risks involved with them. In a way, our report helps us to convey to the manufacturers what sort of toys they should manufacture.
The company is also planning to increase its staff strength to 2,500 in the next three years from the present 1,000. It would also work to upgrade its laboratories across the country.
It is his third visit to the country and what he likes in India in relation to business is that the country has an educated and English speaking population, a great advantage for the sector.
Hauser, a doctor by profession, is also a ski instructor. ?We used to teach how to prevent ski injuries so that they don?t break legs. I also love mountain biking, tennis, golf and hiking.
A diligent traveller who loves to explore different places on the earth. ?Most of the time I am travelling. I would love to see the Taj Mahal and visit the southern India and also see the world through a cultural point of view.
At a time when the country is hit by recession, Hauser believes that it is not going to affect Intertek. He in fact is targeting very rapid growth for its Indian operations and feels that people would still like to spend money on the right products and ensuring quality is important.
