26.01.2024

New owner for TIL

Indian crane manufacturer TIL – previously Tractors India Limited has been acquired by Indocrest Defence Solutions a business with the Gainwell Group, which also owns a Caterpillar distributor. The deal sees the Mazumder family holding reduced from 56 to 32 percent, while Gainwell gains a 43 percent holding, effectively giving it contril, a further cash investment in the business will increase its holding going forward.
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Manju and Sumit Mazumder of TIL with Sunil and Meena Chaturvedi of Gainwell)

A look back at TIL 1944 - 2024

Tractors India was established in 1944 by Alan Ramsay, Charles Porter and Robert Wilson, to import and distribute construction equipment to meet a growing demand. Before long they managed to land the Caterpillar distribution rights and the growth began from its base in Taratala, south Calcutta as it was then. In 1950 it added the Coles crane distribution to its portfolio, went public in 1955, with Avijit ‘Bobby’ Mazumder taking over the management of the business.
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The Tractors India premises in Tarantala in the early 1950s

In 1960 after having struggled with India’s tough import rules, it negotiated a manufacturing license/joint venture with Coles adopting the name Coles Cranes of India, setting up its first crane production facility in Kamarhatty, Calcutta, with the first unit, a 10 tonne wheeled mobile cantilever boom model which came off line in 1962.
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The second crane to come off the new Indian production line in 1962

In 1972 Coles name was dropped and the corporate title became the Indian Crane Company, with Coles divesting or reducing its financial stake in the venture. The company built its first Rough Terrain – a Coles Husky – in 1982, and then In 1985 Coles and its parent company Acrow went into administration, and the Coles business was acquired by Grove.
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A four tonne Coles Carrywell made in India in 1978, several of which shipped to the UK to work at Liverpool docks. The photo above is the Kamarhatty plant

The Mazumders we quick to approach Grove to ensure continuity of the Coles agreement, they not only maintained the production and distribution rights, but also added certain Grove products to their portfolio, while changing the company name to TIL. In 1995 Sumit Mazumder took over from Bobby as managing director.
Over the next two years it added National Crane, Grove Manlift and Manitowoc Crawlers to its crane line up and, building its 5,000th crane in 2007. The following year it agreed a tie up with Hyster for reach stackers and other fork lift products, followed by Astec road equipment

In 2011 its opened its second crane factory in Changual, Kharagpur, in West Bengal, due west of Kolkata. In 2018 the Cat distribution business was sold and was picked up by the Gainwell group, which brings us back to the present day.

The following video is the announcement of the deal