Vishakhapatnam based SIAM Ply is emerging plywood brand for niche market with the latest proprietary OCTAPRO Technology. All panels are 4 times pressed and 4 times treated. This makes its panels have the best quality and also adheres to standards specified for good architects and designers. Company provides dealers the ease of business as they don’t have to think again before referring SIAM Ply to customers specially for quality. An interview with The Ply Reporter, the Promoters of Brand Mr. Ajit Minda & Mr. Ravi Singhal explained the every details of the product specification, thought process and future plans.
What are the products ranges under SIAM Ply? And how it is relevant for a dealer?
We are a brand, which believes in innovation in interior industry. Our plywood and board range include products in the bracket of commercial to club variants. Our dealers will have the freedom to choose and provide solutions at par with the latest industry trends or even better panel products at affordable prices.
Apart from this our panels are differentiated and categorised with product range which have unique strength of marine plywood, dual strength of marine plywood with fire retardant properties and triple strength of structural ply with Marine and Fire retardant properties.
What are the specialities of SIAM Ply products?
We are creating a special niche in the market by giving plywood made with the latest proprietary OCTAPRO Technology. All are panels are 4 times pressed and 4 times treated. This makes our panels have the best quality and also adheres to standards specified for good architects and designers. Our ply is ‘built differently’ to build differently. All our panels are made with least manual intervention and automated technology. This provides our dealer with ease of business as they don’t have to think again before referring our panels to customers specially for quality.
Health and safety become priority post covid, what are the products, SIAM Ply offers taking health care as priority?
Since these are tough times, our brand also cannot be behind in providing our customers the ‘VIROSECURE’ protection when they use our panels. The panel surface can fight against all the microbial attacks up to 99.9%. We have been certified and give the special technology without additional cost to our customers. Our formaldehyde emission standards are also among the least in the industry for some of our panels.
How much guarantees do you offer on your products range and what its impact?
Our top of the line ‘SIAMPLY INVENT CLUB 333’ comes with a 333% money back guarantee on any manufacturing defect and LIFETIME warranty on attacks from termites and borers. Our entry level panels like SIAMPLY INVENT GOLD promise an 11years warrantee against termites and borers.
Through our proprietary OCTAPRO technology, we use of some the best standards for treatment of our panels. These treatment processes give four times better advantage to our customers than any other product available in the market. The consumer gets a warrantee card for every purchase he makes, making him 100% assured of the promise and the terms & conditions of use.
SIAM Ply carries many features, hence how do you cater the India market initially?
India market geographically is like a continent in itself. In India, people from the North, South, East and West have different choices and requirements. Some places weather conditions also change the need for certain products. So to cater to different markets we are making certain changes as per the requirement of end user. Initially we will keep our basket of products simple for our customers to understand our quality and service.
We are creating a special niche in the market by giving plywood made with the latest proprietary OCTAPRO Technology. All our panels are 4 times pressed and 4 times treated. This makes our panels have the best quality and also adheres to standards specified for good architects and designers.
Being your factory located in South India, what is your plan to spread it to other markets?
Initially we had garnered presence in the Southern states of India. We have already started our discussions with dealers in Chhattisgarh and Odisha. Being a huge country geographically it takes lot of time and infrastructure to focus on different markets. South Indian plywood market is a matured market with steady growth but other parts of the country is still underdeveloped and we feel the next demand drive is the east and central Indian markets. We have been on the look out for good dealers who understand our brand philosophy and share a similar vision like ours to ‘INVENT, CREATE & BUILD SKILLS’.
What is the manufacturing infrastructure at SIAM Ply? Which kind of timber do you use?
We have at present 1,00,000 square foot of manufacturing space with multiple presses, latest composing, gluing lines & finishing lines to produce over 4,00,000 NA/month of production. By February 2021, we are adding an additional 50,000 sft of floor space and increasing our production to 11,00,000 NA/ month and over 10000 doors per month. Our R&D team headed by Nishant Singhal is always planning on newer ways to improve the production quality.
VIROSECURE’ protection when they use our panels. The panel surface can fight against all the microbial attacks up to 99.9%. We have been certified and give the special technology without additional cost to our customers. Our formaldehyde emission standards are also among the least in the industry for some of our panels.
Our target is to bring in newer products in plywood and board only as of now. There are discussions to work in future on PVC board, Particle Board and MDF as well.
We use sustainable Agro based wood ‘Eucalyptus’ which is locally available. Apart from that we use ‘Gurjan’ species which we import from Burma, Indonesia and Malaysia.
What is the availability scenario of timber at your place? How do you see the future?
The availability is not an issue as of now. The timber availability is directly dependent on market forces of demand & supply and also till the local farmers are earning by cultivating the species. The paper plants have done the hard work of educating the farmers and we are reaping benefits of the same. We have also started our discussions for farmer community education initiative with the forest department for sustainable growth.
Future of availability looks stable as of now until there are huge changes in demand and supply. Increasing farmer land prices also pose a threat.
How do you see the future of Calibrated plywood in India, and How do you cater demand for OEMS?
The demand for good calibrated plywood is increasing by the hour. Many home and office interior woodworking are being preferred through off-site factory rather than working on-site. The future is looking very bright and more product innovations in this area are being planned in our manufacturing facilities. We have partnered with some of the top OEMs in cities like Mumbai, Bangalore & Hyderabad who look for truly calibrated material. The OEM markets are being tempted by cheap 16mm material which are not calibrated and utilise bad manufacturing standards. My only request to all readers is to not use or sell sub-standard products in OEMs. The problems with variation in surfaces and staple pins will create man, material, machine and time losses to OEMs.
OEMs are demanding more value additions in plywood. In future we will be able to provide melamine paper, veneer & laminated panels. We are also looking at the option of providing them customised sizes as well.
How do you create SIAM Ply at Rs. 100 crores plywood brand?
SIAMPLY as a brand is taking its baby steps in branded plywood segment. We in our brand DNA don’t look at numbers in terms of revenue as a target. Our focus as of now is to make our products available to the widest possible parts of India. We see a huge gap for quality plywood in India. Our estimate is that branded plywood segment with better manufacturing facilities have a chance of exponential growth.
To create such presence we have started work towards building sales teams in various states. Our study shows that the dealers in India want a brand to give them sales which provides profits and peace of mind. That is what we are promising them if they join us in the future. Apart from that we also bring innovation on the table.
We have at present 1,00,000 square foot of manufacturing space with multiple presses, latest composing, gluing lines & finishing lines to produce over 4,00,000 NA/month of production. By February 2021, we are adding an additional 50,000 sft of floor space and increasing our production to 11,00,000 NA/month and over 10000 doors per month.
Our focus as of now is to make our products available to the widest possible parts of India. We see a huge gap for quality plywood in India. Our estimate is that branded plywood segment with better manufacturing facilities have a chance of exponential growth.
Do you plan to enter into other alternate panel products market, what is your view on plywood demand in India?
We have a mix of young millennials with great experience building a brand in India. Our target is to bring in newer products in plywood and board only as of now. There are discussions to work in future on PVC board, Particle Board and MDF as well. But our team still feels that plywood as a product is still competitive and the products compounded annual growth rate is in itself an indicator that plywood as a product is here to stay longer
We as a consumer base in India are almost 25-50 times behind the consumption of interior related products in other developed countries. The recent news where we heard of Bengaluru’s real estate construction per square foot being higher in past year compared to many big cities in the world put together is in itself an example for us to estimate the future. The tier 2 and 3 cities have just started urbanising. People want better interiors with increase in standard of living. We at SIAMPLY believe a steady and better demand for quality plywood for really long time in the future.