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Pidilite Industries, a leading adhesives and construction chemicals company, expects innovation to drive growth in future with stable raw material prices expected in next few quarters.
On the contrary to the FMCG companies, the company has not seen any slowdown in the rural markets due to increase in distribution channel and focused efforts.
Bharat Puri, MD, Pidilite, said each of the company’s divisions launch one or two major products every six to nine months.
For instance, the company has launched a new variant of Fevicol called Fevicol Hiper Star and introduced a whole range of new sealant products under Feviseal.
In waterproofing, he said a new exterior waterproofing solution Raincoat Neo and Roofseal for roof sealing was launched.
Innovation and growth
The art materials division has reintroduced glue drops under FeviCreate. “One of the reasons why we are growing at comparatively higher rates is that innovation is fuelling our growth,” he said.
The Red Sea crisis has not impacted the raw material cost of the company as most of the materials come from the East. The principal input cost of VAM (vinyl acetate monomer) was $2,000 a tonne in December, 2022 and it has fallen to about $900-$1,000 a tonne now.
Barring any black swan events, the company expects raw material prices to remain stable, he said.
“We have just put up a factory for exterior renders in Rajasthan with a Spanish company Grupo Puma. It is another pioneer category. We will test it out, understand and then make this a major category,” said Puri.
New facilities
The company has set up nine new facilities last year taking the overall facilities to 70 in India and there another 8 overseas. The company spends 3-5 per cent of sales as capital expenditure.
After the company took over Araldite products it did not sell much in the rural areas. However, this is a driver of growth and tiling adhesive Roff has now been extended to rural and semi urban, said Puri.
In a bid to enhance awareness, the company has opened small retail stores ‘Pidilite Ki Duniya’ in villages with a population of 5,000-10,000 and added 30,000 distribution points in the December quarter taking the total to 1 lakh.
Currently, there are 12,000 Pidilite Ki Duniya stores which teach local artisans and masons on use of the company’s products.
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