Indian engineering doesn’t always get the recognition it deserves on the global stage. That’s what makes this one worth paying attention to.
KOOT, part of the EKKI Group owned by the Arumugam family, has been named a Finalist for the “Supplier of the Year” Award at the Pump Industry Awards (PIA) — presented by the British Pump Manufacturers Association (BPMA) in collaboration with key European industry leaders. The awards recognize technical innovation, sustainability, customer focus, and supply chain leadership. Getting shortlisted puts you in serious company.
The ceremony was hosted in Burton upon Trent, UK — one of the industry’s most established international platforms, drawing top-performing manufacturers and suppliers from across Europe and beyond. For an India-based components supplier to land a finalist spot here is not routine. It tells you something about how far KOOT has come.
So what does KOOT actually do? The company supplies critical components and sub-assemblies — impellers, casings, shafts, stators, rotors — to leading global pump and motor manufacturers, operating out of four production units in India. It also runs a team of 50+ engineers who work directly alongside customers’ engineering teams on design and development. That’s not a parts catalog operation. That’s deep integration into how the world’s pump OEMs build their products.
KOOT is backed by the EKKI Group’s 45+ year legacy and presence in more than 25 countries , which gives it the stability and reach that smaller component suppliers often lack. The company has positioned itself — somewhat ambitiously, but not unconvincingly — as the “Foxconn of the Pump and Motor Industry.” The comparison is meant to signal what KOOT is building: an integrated, end-to-end manufacturing and engineering platform that OEMs can plug into rather than build themselves.
CEO Kanishka Arumugam, an Oxford University alumnus, was direct about what the recognition means: this isn’t just a company win, it’s a signal about Indian engineering’s place in the global supply chain. He’s not wrong. KOOT has also established offices in Germany and the USA to stay close to its international customer base — a practical move that makes the partnership model actually work across time zones and procurement cycles.
The PIA finalist recognition won’t change KOOT’s order book overnight. But in an industry where trust is built slowly and supplier relationships run deep, this kind of visibility on a European stage matters. It tells prospective partners something a sales deck can’t: that peers in the industry have taken notice.
Worth watching as the EKKI Group continues to expand its international footprint.
