When it comes to the space you work or stay in, design and interiors are crucial parameters

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Rishabh Agarwal, Non-Executive Chairman, Responsive Industries talks to Leandra Monteiro about the launch of this latest product line and the Indian flooring industry's performance in the last year. What is the thought behind the innovation of IMPACT? Flooring remains the most prominent part of the home décor, yet these everlasting fixtures prevent the residents from exploring news aesthetics. We at Responsive Industries, noticed this need gap between luxury and durability of tiles. People renovate homes by frequently changing their furniture, wall paint and interiors, however, one doesn’t think of changing the tiles often as it is a time-consuming and tedious process. It creates large amounts of dust and noise pollution all around and is a hassle to change. Until now, flooring was just considered to be a part of the routine home structure. This led to the idea of IMPACT, our innovative range of Luxury Vinyl Flooring (LVT) to revamp home and office décor with a new perspective. This breakthrough range will change the way flooring is conceived. IMPACT offers an exclusive assortment of LVT with a hard interlocking system for easy installation. It was created keeping in mind the traditional facets of flooring and the new needs of the time. IMPACT makes easy, quick flooring a possibility and is the ideal solution for homes, offices and hospitality projects. Features and Benefits of IMPACT With our new range of IMPACT floors we aim at making Luxury Vinyl Flooring the crucial element of better interiors. Our cutting edge technology offers resistance to oils, cleaning fluids and gasoline, and cost-effectiveness. Keeping in mind that our customers are cautious about the substances they use in their surroundings, we created LVT with hard interlocking technique which requires zero adhesive to lay on the ground. The ease of installation of our tiles is simple and quick – step out for a movie and come back to an entirely brand new flooring, without any cutting, drilling, sawing, cement work, dust or dirt. We understand that people prefer change, they consider moving to a new home as per their spending patterns, therefore we showcase that our tiles can move with you. IMPACT tiles are not only easy to install, but easy to remove and take with you also. One of the major advantages of IMPACT floors is that you need not remove your old tiles, one can place our tiles as is on the existing flooring and the shelf life of the same is about 10-20 years. IMPACT tiles are 100% water, termite proof and scratch free. Feel free to skate, roll and scoot on IMPACT ?oors, the anti-scratch wear layers will protect your ?oor. Our LVT’s join seamlessly leaving no gaps in between, leading to low maintenance and high cleanliness. IMPACT ?oors are designed with an IXPE backing that cut the household sounds and keep the ambiance creak and crunch free! Walk, dance or even prance about freely, your babies will not be disturbed! When it comes to the space you work or stay in, design and interiors are crucial parameters. IMPACT offers innovative designs and patterns with different colour combinations and layouts in three variants of Wood, Stone and Carpets designs. IMPACT HARD INTERLOCKING TILES allow you to mix stone and wood tiles and create a flawless continuous floor. Give your wood flooring a stone border and complete the look. How is the Indian flooring industry currently performing? The global vinyl flooring market * reached a volume of 1,060 Million Sq. Metres in 2018, registering a CAGR of 5.1% during 2011-2018. The market is further projected to reach a volume of 1,441 Million Sq. Metres by 2024. Vinyl flooring is cost-effective in nature and exhibits numerous features such as durability, flexible handling, and design possibilities which make it suitable to be used in hospitals, schools, offices and houses. Over the years, an increase in the disposable income of a customer has enabled them to improve their lifestyles and invest in luxurious housing projects and other infrastructural developments. In 2018, the residential sector represented the largest application for vinyl flooring globally, accounting for 67% of the global sales volume. On the other hand, commercial sector accounted for the remaining 33% of the market during the same year. In 2018, India’s flooring market accounted for a share of 10.8% of the total Asia-Pacific flooring market volume. *Vinyl flooring market: Global Industry Trends, Share, Size, Growth, Opportunity and Forecast 2019-2020 - Imarc What are the challenges you are facing? Despite the presence of a number of driving forces, the global vinyl flooring market faces some challenges as well. India is still a country of traditional flooring methods and it’s a long run towards changing the way flooring is perceived. Furthermore, the fluctuating prices of the raw materials used in the manufacturing of vinyl flooring components, strict policies governing the manufacturing process and the changing technologies represent some of the other challenges currently faced by the manufacturers. In what way can the government enhance the flooring industry in India? With improvements in the national economic scenario, the construction industry is expected to witness healthy growth in the coming years. The renovation of urban areas in existing cities and the establishment of smart cities is further expected to catalyze the growth of the market. In India, the growth trends of the floor covering industry have been similar to those of other segments in the construction industry. Increasing emphasis on quality and adherence to strict deadlines, while at the same time sticking to the budget, are factors that are driving the trends in the flooring industry. The healthy growth rate maintained by industrialization and the buoyant urban infrastructure scenario are factors that may help the growth of the market. Similarly, the increase in metro rail projects and the subsequent demand for quality flooring at metro stations are the emerging applications for the market. One of the trends in the Indian market has been the fact that the commercial flooring segment has been keeping up to the pace of growth of the industrial flooring market. Future plans To foray into international markets in high growth LVT business, we have initiated the set-up of a dedicated LVT manufacturing unit in UAE with the capacity of 86 million square feet per annum. This would entail an investment of around USD 30 million, which is funded by internal accruals. We expect the plant installation to be completed by early FY2020 and the cash inflows to be started from beginning of the fiscal year 2021. The UAE’s strategic location provides competitive market advantage along with low-cost of production. To expand our geographical distribution reach, we are setting up a global sales team and have signed up with new international distributors to ramp up the volume of sales of high-value margin product. We have built up a highly experienced and professional management team, which plays a key role in helping build a robust leadership and succession pipeline.