Everest Industries Ltd (EIL), manufacturer of building solutions products, expects the three factories commissioned over the past few quarters to contribute ₹300-350 crore to its turnover this fiscal.

The company says its strategy of focusing on expanding in rural markets, and widening its dealer network is paying off, with the first quarter turnover this year jumping nearly 30 per cent compared with the corresponding quarter last year.

Speaking to BusinessLine on the sidelines of the launch of colour-coated metal roofing sheets in Coimbatore, Rahul Chopra, Senior VP & Head-Roofing Business, EIL, New Delhi, said the company had commissioned the roofing plant at Baleshwar, Odisha, late last year.

The new plant at Dahej in Gujarat for manufacture of pre-engineered building (PEB) solutions has started production. A metal roofing plant had come up in Ranchi, Jharkand. He expected these plants to contribute around ₹300 crore-350 crore to the turnover of EIL during the current financial year.

Sales strategy Explaining the strategy adopted by EIL that led to an ₹84-crore jump in turnover to ₹380.83 crore in Q 1 of 2014-15, against ₹296.81 crore in Q1 last year, he said the company focused on a ‘deeper rural penetration’ to push sales.

It began identifying clusters with large populations, so it could appoint distributors to service them. This led to expansion of dealership by 20-25 per cent and the company worked on improving awareness about its products among potential customers. It also provided training to around 7,500 roofing installers in the last year.

Chopra said that since February 2014, the roofing industry had ‘consistently seen’ a demand uptick and that Everest had posted its highest-ever sales, month after month, in roofing products, including boards and panels.

After a sluggish performance in the first three months of last fiscal, the firm saw a turnaround in demand in the January-March quarter of 2013-14 and the trend has sustained.

The current month’s sales number too is a record for Everest through traditionally August is a ‘sluggish’ month for the roofing business, Chopra said.

He said demand was being driven by a ‘robust rural economy’, increase in warehousing demand and higher disposable incomes with the rural population, aided by the company’s strategy to expand its rural reach.

Market share Everest Industries has also introduced products such as roofing reinforced with synthetic fibre and polycarbonates.

It has launched ‘Everest Durasteel’, a colour-coated, leak-proof metal sheet with higher durability. He said the fibre cement roofing market in India was about 40 million tonnes and his company has 14-15 per cent market share in this segment.

The pre-coated metal roofing market was a different segment, with both organised and unorganised players.

Everest was among the few companies to launch branded products in this segment, with an estimated market size of 300,000 tonnes a year.

This product, being relatively new, is registering 20-25 per cent demand growth annually, while demand growth in the AC roofing industry is 8-10 per cent a year.

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