SARVADA SARVOTTAM: The best, always
Keshav Bhajanka, Director, CenturyPly, talks about his brand, products and trends with Realty Plus What are the latest products offered by your brand? CenturyPly launched a new age, eco-friendly wood alternative and durable engineered product – Zykron & ‘new age panels’ under the brand name of ‘Starke’. Zykron contains Fibre Cement composite material that is manufactured by combining cement and cellulose fibres and is marketed by CenturyPly. This composite gives Zykron a unique finish, which makes it the ideal choice for a wide range of applications. Starke is a PVC based panel which is a chemically foamed, rigid, light weight extruded sheet with fine & homogenous closed cell structure having a smooth matt surface finish on both sides. What are the market trends for 2016? Plywood industry in India had been heavily dependent on local raw material which became scarce due to rapid deforestation. Therefore future sustenance is highly dependent upon plantation as well as imported timber. Envisioning this, CenturyPly has already secured raw material availability on both the fronts: Demand Growth Factors. There are primarily three factors which will drive the demand growth: • Growth in Real Estate sector: Policy support from the Government of India to ‘Housing for All’ will drive the growth in this sector. There is a shortage of around 26 Million dwelling units in India. The Real Estate sector size is expected to be around USD 60 bn by 2025. • Reducing renovation cycle: Unlike in the past, home interiors are getting renovated every 5-7 years now. With the rapid changes in life style, it is expected to reduce further. • Increase in Disposable Income: India is expected to be one of the highest GDP growth economies in the world. That will translate into high disposable income in the hands of consumers. • Implementation of GST: This will add another 1-1.5% additional growth to GDP. Moreover, GST is expected to support organized players. • High Growth in Furniture Industry: Due to various driving factors the furniture industry in India is expected to reach USD 20.00 billion by 2020. The growth in demand for these products is also justified by the growth witnessed in the production of cement, finished steel and related products. What is the USP of your company? We believe that our Quality is our strength. We have always set benchmarks in the quality of our products; so much so, our Vision is also based on this strength: ‘SARVADA SARVOTTAM- the best, always.’ And of course, focussed and caring Customer Service is another of our strengths. We believe we are here today due to our customers, and they deserve top- class treatment from all of us at CenturyPly. What is the target audience for your products? Since our products can afford to attract a price- premium due the top- notch quality, which the market is well aware of; our target group has traditionally been the upper middle and high income groups. However, we appreciated the need for providing products across the price spectrum, predominantly to expand the market as the leadership brand in this category. So now we have products like the affordable SAINIK plywood which is more of a mass- market product, and of course MDF and particle boards. We are also coming up with products like wood polymer composite boards and fibre- cement boards. The ultimate aim is to provide solutions to everyone looking to furnish their homes. What are your future plans? As for future plan, we are looking to consolidate our market dominance and keep growing aggressively in our current strong portfolios of plywood, laminates and decorative veneers. Parallel to that, we are constantly adding products like MDF and particle boards to reach the price- conscious segment, hence covering the entire market. Alongside strengthening our national presence by shoring up distribution and increasing the retail presence, we will continue to grow overseas in countries like Myanmar, Laos and Indonesia. We are also coming up with strategic partnerships in Latin America and the middle- east to market our products. The supply- chain for raw materials is already strong and we are constantly looking for the best suppliers globally.
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