Milan Zatakia, chairman and CEO of Millennium Aero Dynamics, fondly remembers the days when he started Dynamark Engineers in the western suburbs of Bombay, primarily for the installation and service of car air conditioners. The team’s focus was to ensure customer satisfaction, which was lacking in those days. Zatakia and his people would huddle together, searching for ways to keep the company healthy and retain market leadership.
It was during this time an idea germinated; look beyond the situation and venture into uncharted waters. The team immediately began looking at air conditioners in other mobile applications like ambulances and instrumentation vans. Increasing operator comforts increased productivity.
The company entered into a sales and service arrangement with Red Dot Corp (USA). The demand was good and Dynamark enjoyed continued success. Today, Red Dot air conditioners are operating in earthmoving equipment in various coal and iron ore mines, cement factories and more.
In the 1990s, the company ventured into aircraft cooling units. A sales and service arrangement was formed with Devtev Corp. USA (now part of the TLD Group) and its units were introduced to the Indian market.
Subsequent commissioning and maintenance visits to airports spurred ideas for improvements to other equipment. This lead Dynamark into a relationship with internationally reputed manufacturer, TLD. With TLD by their side, Dynamark began working with Hydro-Germany and Cotrac GmBH — manufacturers of the low floor apron bus.
By the end of 1990s, Zatakia and his team found it difficult to cope with the high expectations from the customers and existing principals, despite their 18-hour work days.
“Some of the people had ultimatums from their wives — either have some time to spend with us or be ready for a divorce — an ultimatum we could not ignore,” Zatakia jokes.
So at the turn of the century, organizational changes were put into effect. Dynamark was corporatized and Millennium Aero Dynamics was born. New executives were inducted to give it the requisite momentum. Madhukar Parikh, a chartered accountant and a key player in one of the few private Indian airlines, came on board as managing director and chief operating officer. Similarly, many other new talents were inducted. Dynamark’s engineers became the principal support services division of Millennium.
The company main stay — the principal support services division — was augmented with the addition of technical team members and their training programs. In keeping with the view of the vast geographical area and the fact that customers are scattered around the country, it was decided to increase company-owned service centers. Service agents hired for select locations and trained for routine maintenance and small repairs. This ensured timely service to the end-users, with less cost to the company. The company’s branch offices started in Bangalore (souhern India) and Delhi (northern India). Extension service centers were also established in various mines with a large number of Red Dot air conditioners in operation.
After firming up the existing activities, the same quest to look beyond and widen the horizon came into play, and Millennium started its expansion spree in all spheres. Expansion in the aviation sector lead to joint ventures with Avery Hardoll (UK), now a part of Meggitt PLC Group, Faudi Aviation Fuel Filtration (Germany), for aviation fueling components, and GlobeFuel (Germany) for aviation fueling automation. The next natural step was the airport infrastructure. To accomplish this, Millennium formed ties with FCX Inc. (US), for solid state frequency converters, Vanderlande (Netherlands), for baggage handling systems, and Muhibbah (Malaysia) for Aerobridges.
The expansion spree continues with the addition of Brice aircraft seats, Adhetec aircraft interior and exterior decals, AirvodI inflight entertainment systems, Mercury on-board medical and oxygen systems and Studer cables for GPUs. Millennium is also in discussions with ULD manufacturers, galley equipment manufacturers, and Aero engine repairs and test equipment manufacturers.
Principals have also enlisted Millennium’s help in customer service outside of India. For TLD, Millennium looks after customer service in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Syria. Similarly for Hydro-Germany, Millennium supervises Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. An increasing number are now contemplating entrusting their customer service actions outside India to Millennium.
