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Anil Banchhor, Chief Executive- Concrete Business, ACC Limited; talks about his company’s products future plans with Realty Plus What are the latest products offered by your brand? ACC offers a wide range of Value Added Products (VAPs) to the smart home owners which are not only sustainable and affordable but also highly durable. Some of the company’s latest product offerings are: 1. Imprintcrete and Staincrete can be used to beautify: Concrete need not always be mundane it can be printed or stamped for making decorative surfaces on porch, paving, footpath and walkways. Not only is it durable and impact resistant it is also weather-proof, making it easy and cheap to maintain. 2. Permecrete can self-drain water: This is a high performance concrete which is porous within its body to permit water drainage to lower surface, thus improving ground water table. It allows easy and swift drainage of water, the large pores present in the no-fines concrete allow easy drainage into the ground under appropriate conditions. 3. Thermocrete can weather proof your house and reduce your electricity bills: This special composition increases the concrete’s resistance to sulphates, reduces chloride-ion penetration, and improves resistance to aggressive environments. This kind of arrangement keeps the building cool in summer and warm in winters. 4. Fixotile, Do-It-Yourself (DIY) concrete: Planned with a Do-It-Yourself approach, it is prepared simply by mixing water. It takes barely 90 seconds to dry, allowing tiles to be easily set within that period of time. Fixotile is an easy to apply, quick fix for laying tiles or taking care of minor repairs, which customers can use on their own without any added cost of hiring labour. 5. Jet-setcrete, the self-levelling, high strength concrete: Jet-Setcrete is a concrete solution that is designed to gain ultra-high strength within few hours and with self-levelling features suitable for faster construction demand to achieve project completion within a short period of time. 6. Ecocrete: On the other hand, is a cost effective concrete product, like any other concrete. It enables sustainable development without compromising on the durability of the traditional concrete. What are the market trends for 2016? Consumers are now more aware than ever on the need to use green products in their homes and this is driving the builders to use more sustainable products in their construction. ACC’s products offer a variety of benefits in terms of being more eco-friendly as well as easy to make since it uses locally available materials. As a result the demand for all green products like Ecocrete is going up and we expect it to grow exponentially in the foreseeable future. The production of Ecocrete in comparison to overall concrete products is close to 15% as of now. We expect the proportion of Ecocrete to go up to 40% to meet the growing consumer demands. What is the USP of your company? ACC is the only cement producer in India with its own in-house research and development facility. This unit, recognized by the Department of Scientific & Industrial Research (DSIR) in the Ministry of Science and Technology, is engaged in research and development activities related to cement and concrete areas. The R & D programme addresses a spectrum of activities that covers technical services for quality and technology up-gradation and development of products and processes in the company’s core business. Given the inherent variability in the mineral resources used in cement manufacture, considerable attention has been devoted to continuously optimizing process conditions including raw materials proportioning to ensure the highest quality. What are your future plans? Realizing the thrust on housing and development and with an aim to educate the Indian rural population in construction techniques and create business opportunities for them, ACC set up ‘Green Building Centres’ in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan. ACC’s Green Building Material Centres (GBMCs), has been launched to tackle affordable housing issues in India at the grass root level. The low-cost housing market in India is a significant opportunity as almost 70 percent of the population still lives in the countryside and a vast amount of residential, commercial, and infrastructure construction is needed there. It is estimated that if one million homes are built in a year for the next 10 years, this would only cover about a quarter of the need. ACC Green Building Materials Centres educate the rural population, particularly low cost builders in construction techniques, use eco-friendly building materials and create business opportunities for them to network with local government and community. For the company, a new customer segment is also generated. These Centres encourage sustainable construction techniques. Hence, the materials are produced from local resources and incorporate waste material like fly ash which helps drastically to reduce CO2 emissions and further cut costs. The popularity and effectiveness of these Centres can be judged by the fact that at the recently concluded Green Cities Forum, ACC’s Green Building Centres were acknowledged as the Smart Initiative.