Roto Pumps is celebrating 25 years in Australia in 2026. Pump Industry explores the company’s local legacy.
Soon after Roto Pumps’ entrance into Australia in 2001 – its first international foray beyond India – it didn’t take long for the company to gain a strong local foothold.
End users increasingly turned to Roto’s distinct offering, underpinned by customised engineered pump packages, strong service support and ready availability of pumps and spares.
The company was also recognised for its expertise in application engineering, understanding Australia’s complex pumping requirements, and the process demands that come with that.
Twenty-five years on and Roto Pumps has installed thousands of positive displacement pumps and spare parts in Australia across a range of industries such as mining, water and wastewater, food and beverage, chemicals, pulp and paper, and oil and gas.
“We’ve consistently grown our footprint year on year, and we’re now trusted by a range of suppliers nationwide,” Roto Pumps Australia general manager John Wilkins told Pump Industry.
“With several shipments coming from India per month, Roto always holds reliable stockholdings of pumps and parts to ensure a rapid turnaround for our customers.”
Wilkins said, with 25 years behind the company’s involvement in Australia, many Roto Pumps products have “become the standard platform for many industrial OEMs”.
“All our pumps and parts are manufactured in-house, meaning we’ve got full quality control over our products,” he said. “Some manufacturers are increasingly outsourcing capability to China and other international partners, so being able to build a product from top-to-bottom ourselves is a differentiator.
“Across 25 years, we’ve been able to establish a solid, reliable footprint in Australia that prioritises product quality and service to our trusted customer base.”
Despite its local foothold, Roto Pumps isn’t sitting still, continuing to evolve its product portfolio and offerings for local markets.
“We’re doubling our manufacturing capacity in India, with plenty of capital being invested in new machines for international markets such as Australia,” Wilkins said.
This includes the P-Range of progressive cavity pumps, introduced last year to meet increasing demand for smaller, high-performance equipment in tough applications found in wastewater, mining, and oil and gas industries.
Featuring a unique thrush bush joint, the P-Range packs a punch for its compact design, delivering robust performance and adaptability, achieving flow rates up to 360m³ per hour at up to 24 bar.
An elastomer seal ring at both ends of the stator prevents corrosion of the stator tube, ensuring pumped media doesn’t come in contact with the stator sleeve or the adhesive. Improved rotor stator geometry minimises wear due to lower rubbing velocities.
The P-Range boasts two large inspection ports enabling quick and easy joint inspection and blockage removal during pumping. This is demonstrated in the Roto KWIK design variant, which offers Maintenance-in-Place capability. Here, maintenance on internal rotating components can be completed without dismantling suction and delivery pipelines, removing the need for extra dismantling space.
Wilkins said the P-Range, given increasing market presence and uptake, was becoming one of Roto’s standard pump ranges.
“The P-Range is seeing significantly higher production today than when it was first launched, with the product being strategically promoted by Roto Pumps globally,” Wilkins said.
“P-Range inventory is now being held in most of Roto’s major distribution centres around the world, supplying industries in Australia, New Zealand, the UK, the US, South Africa, Europe and beyond.”
While Roto Pumps boasts its core product portfolio, bespoke solutions are being engineered every week to suit specific customer requirements. This is particularly the case in the Australian mining sector.
“We’ve made and modified new products to slot into the mining industry, and we’re taking increased market share as we go,” Wilkins said. “This is particularly the case with our dewatering pump range, which has become a well-recognised product.”
To support this growing mining footprint, Roto Pumps is seeing strong traction with its robust, turnkey Roto Mining Stations, which are fully equipped with single or multiple Roto FLEX Flexible Shaft Series pumps.
Designed to handle extreme high pressures of up to 48 bar, Roto FLEX pumps utilise an innovative, single-piece flexible shaft, removing the need for traditional universal joints and wearing components like pins and bushes. This unique design eliminates joint lubrication requirements and dramatically reduces maintenance downtime.
“Mine operators are constantly looking for ways to reduce total cost of ownership and maximise uptime in remote, unforgiving environments,” Wilkins said.
“By engineering our mining stations to confidently operate at 48 bar without the complex wearing parts found in standard joints, we are delivering an incredibly durable, high-pressure solution for transferring highly viscous and abrasive mine water.”
From decades of experience in the field, Roto Pumps intimately understands the Australian mining industry’s technical and reliability demands. This inspired the company’s service exchange program.
“Our service exchange program involves our customers returning their existing pump for assessment and a rebuild, and once done this pump joins our fleet of units available for fast-response breakdowns,” Roto Pumps Western Australia territory manager Graeme Martin told Pump Industry.
“Many things can go wrong with underground pumping equipment, and it is not uncommon to have more than one failure at a time which can build to a critical level over time. Having equipment in stock rather than waiting six weeks for a pump to be repaired can make a huge difference to a mine’s operation.”
Leveraging a growing Australian footprint and a 58-year Indian legacy steeped in engineering excellence and ingenuity, Roto Pumps is targeting $US100 million of revenue by 2028.
This is a sweet spot that ensures the company can remain agile to adapt to customer needs, while still having the manufacturing scale to adopt new technologies and methodologies.
“We want to use our technical expertise, product development capability and installed base to provide solutions,” Wilkins said. “It’s that simple.”
To learn more, visit rotopumps.com.au
This feature appeared in the Autumn edition of Pump Industry.
