The most recent development took place at their Gandhidham manufacturing partner’s facility of upgrading and bringing in latest machineries during this lockdown including Core Composer, Calibrator, Pre-Press, Automatic DD Saw, Brush Sander and Digital Printer. All these new machineries were installed & trial runs were completed by July 2020. Supplies from August 2020 onward will see a shift in terms of overall product quality as well as aesthetics.
W e all are familiar with the idiom ‘cometh the hour, cometh the man’ and have seen many legendary examples in real life but it is not so often visible in our wood panel industry which has been fairly traditional in its approach since decades. In March 2020, exactly five months ago, the newspapers covered multiple subjective articles as India came to a standstill. “Coronavirus: India enters 'total lockdown', road, air and rail services to be suspended”, said the headline. The articles went on to explain about how such a preventive measure was the first-of-its-kind in history of Independent India and its various industry level implications. Little did we knew at that point of time about how the upcoming period was about to redefine our entire lifestyle and shatter many prejudices which until now have been part of our reality.
With almost 2/3rd timber units operating at sub-optimal levels, Asia’s largest timber cluster in Gujarat, situated near the Kandla port, saw one of its first silver lining in mid-April 2020 when Kajaria Plywood Pvt. Ltd. took up the task of utilising this lockdown period to strengthen its manufacturing infrastructure.
Kajaria Plywood Pvt. Ltd. is a subsidiary of Kajaria Ceramics Ltd. (India's No. 1 Tile Brand) and has been offering wood panel products viz. Plywood, Block Board & Flush Doors under the brand name of KajariaPLY. The business has executed successful manufacturing tieups at both Gandhidham & Surat in Gujarat as well as at Rudrapur in Uttarakhand.
Having won the Super brands award for 11th time in a row, Kajaria is the largest manufacturer of ceramic/ vitrified tiles in India. Founded 32 years ago, Kajaria has grown stronger with its hard work, innovations and patronage from its discerning customers. With the Indian consumers' rapidly growing appetite for quality building materials, Kajaria believes in expanding its horizon continuously..
THE KAJARIAPLY ADVANTAGE:
As per their business model, KajariaPLY never intended to add to the existing over-capacity in terms of production. Therefore, they had been aggregating various unorganised & semi-organised manufacturers through tie-ups by up-skilling and upgrading their plant capabilities along with technical inputs. The most recent development took place at their Gandhidham manufacturing partner’s facility of upgrading and bringing in latest machineries during this lockdown including Core Composer, Calibrator, Pre-Press, Automatic DD Saw, Brush Sander and Digital Printer.
All these new machineries were installed & trial runs were completed by July 2020. Supplies from August 2020 onward will see a shift in terms of overall product quality as well as aesthetics. Keeping in mind the critical factor of Health & Safety, the Calibrator machine has been installed with an additional safety feature of Spark Arrestor which is first-of-its-kind for any medium scale manufacturing facility. Also, the digital printing machine has been carefully evaluated to provide an unmatchable look to the new KajariaPLY product even though the QR code integrated Holographic product label will continue as it is embedded with 12 security features to prohibit counterfeiting.
Given their unique business model, KajariaPLY is playing a role in shifting the unorganised/semiorganised manufacturing capacity into an organised part of the industry
Owing to the established brand presence in building materials space of its parent company Kajaria Ceramics Ltd., KajariaPLY has been able to leverage the synergies and gradually move into government sector. The brand has already been empanelled by various central as well as state government departments for their upcoming projects.
In an industry-first, KajariaPLY has appointed Bollywood superstar Ranveer Singh as their brand ambassador. The brand proposition of ‘India Jaisa Strong’ truly reflects the tone of today’s India’s demographic strength viz. Young, Dynamic, Patriotic & Passionate and reinforces the definitive commitment which KajariaPLY has set for its customers.
As on date KajariaPLY has strength of 90 motivated workforce who are managing & servicing 155 channel partners across North, West & South India. They have recently started operations in the Eastern states of Bihar, Jharkhand & West Bengal since May 2020.
KajariaPLY is also driving a ground level program of engaging & coaching carpenters as well as contractors for promoting as well as using quality wood panel products along with correct application based on individual requirements of end-consumers, thereby addressing all levels of marketplace. They have already touched 10000+ carpenters in the last 2 years and will keep engaging further as they keep opening up new markets going forward.
“The business model is scalable to meet the demand of aspiring Indians,” said Mr. Ankur Sachdeva, Chief Operating Officer of Kajaria Plywood Pvt. Ltd.
In its quest to offer premium wood panel products with an unwavering commitment towards product quality and customer satisfaction, KajariaPLY has always strived to adopt the finest standards of the modern times. Accordingly, it had adopted an unconventional, assetlight model in the wood panel industry. This unique model gives them the flexibility & nimbleness to respond to evolving market trends and customer requirements in all geographies in an efficient manner owing to their transparent business model, where carefully chosen independent manufacturing partners across India provide completely graded material of a uniquely specific construction &high quality under the watchful eyes of their on-site QC personnel.
KAJARIAPLY 2.0:
It seems like that this pandemic has been well utilised by KajariaPLY to press the re-set button and start working with a completely fresh set of perspective backed by renewed energy & motivation. Along with robust push for schemes like ‘Housing for All by 2022’, the idea for KajariaPLY is to encash such opportunities & transform this traditional industry.
.“KajariaPLY has many new products lining up in the next few months, as we evolve ourselves according to the post-covid market dynamics” said Subrajit Majumdar, Head of Product Management & Trade Marketing at Kajaria Plywood Pvt. Ltd. “These product developments are also another step toward evolving as a 100% customer-centric brand & will offer a bigger basket of products to choose from,” he added.
KajariaPLY has been studying the new dynamics of market and accordingly have revamped the products with features like Calibrated Plywood targeting the OEM segment apart from lower formaldehyde emission in its premium metallic series. It has also adopted double pressing process for its products providing superior quality across all segments.
At KajariaPLY, the current product portfolio has been structured and comprises of 16 different sub-brands catering to various requirements of market. Ranging from the premium Metallic Series (Platinum, Gold Maxx& Silver) to the affordable Pro Series (Pro 710 & Pro Build), the gamut offers a complete range of plywood and block board options. Apart from these products, the brand has also forayed into Flush Doors segment with 4 retail level sub-brands viz. Premier, Select. Superior & Classic to widen its portfolio and tap the fenestration market as well.
“For KajariaPLY team members, it is a big responsibility to maintain and grow the trust of a super-brand like Kajaria, not only for our end customers & manufacturing partners but also our channel partner family which has already grown to almost 155 channel partners across 18 States & 3 UTs. The most important thing is that we are here to implement a very clear vision wherein the basic foundation has now been laid and the scale supported by an expanded product portfolio will follow in the medium to long term in the new normal,” believes Mr. Ankur Sachdeva.