Trojan plywood is the fastest developing brand in south India Market due to its consistent good quality products offering.
Trojan Plywood is known in the market in terms of quality and brand value. They bring out plywood as calibrated for all thicknesses above 6 mm. During an interaction with The Ply Reporter, Director Mr Mohiyuddin Ashfaq shared the growth, specialty, strength and future plan of the company. They have recently forayed into Teak Veneer market, and soon will introduce Natural Veneer range. Mr. Ashfaq said that there were a few challenges in the plywood market in 2018, but the future looks promising and optimistic.
Q. How has been the growth of Trojan Plywood in FY 2018-19?
A. We have been keeping pace with the developments in the market and have ensured that we continued to grow during FY 2018-19, despite challenges. We remain optimistic that the coming months of the last quarter of this FY, and the FY ahead in 2019-20, will further boost our prospects for all-round growth.
Q. How has GST implementation affected your Company?
A. The GST implementation has been a welcome, positive, step in the right direction. Doubtless, this will go a long way in strengthening and benefitting the organized sector. This is although traders across the market spectrum have been taking their own time to get used to the new system.
Q. Your product range and which one your product is major contributor to your growth?
A. Among our premium brands of Plywood, we offer Trojan Signature and Trojan Platinum products to our luxury interiors related and quality-sensitive segments. For market segments where quality-sensitivity goes side by side with price-sensitivity, we offer our Trojan Gold and Trojan Classic sub brands, whereas for areas where price is the single biggest concern, we offer Troy Gold and Troy Silver. Among these sub brands, it has been Trojan Classic that has contributed to our growth stability in recent months.
Q. What is the speciality of your plywood product for customers?
A. One key highlight of our premium products is that they exceed IS: 710 specifications and that they are all fully calibrated from 6mm thickness upwards. Life time warranty backed by a Guarantee Card, uniform strength, structural balance, Quad-press technology and the unique Trojan core-protection technology which ensures that our products are resistant to both, termites and borers, are all welcome qualities as far as a designer is concerned. Great tensile strength has to be coupled with incredible bonding qualities. We have an in-house resin manufacturing unit and R& D facility that makes the best synthetic resins – another key quality which the careful designer seeks to ensure in his choice of plywood.
Q. Trojan Plywood brand has been getting popular in the south Indian market. Can you rate your brand among top five brands in southern plywood market?
A. As of today, we would not be exaggerating if we consider Trojan Plywood to be the very best in the market in terms of quality and brand value. Along with all other
major brands, it is among the fastest developing brands in south India.
The market in India is slowly granting acceptance to brands and semi-brands working with regular sales teams, better back-up technology and wider network. At Trojan, we hope to maintain our balance in controlling cost, for good product quality combined with well-considered promotional expenditure. We are sure that over a period of time, it will be the organized sectors with a level playing field that will benefit.
Q. What are the advantages of making calibrated plywood? Are you offering calibrated plywood in all thicknesses? If yes, then why would that be so from a purely technical perspective?
A. Calibrated plywood provides for uniform thickness all across the panel. This is achieved by calibrating it in modern high-end imported plywood calibrator machines. The singular advantage granted by ply boards having uniform thickness is that this quality makes them ideal panel products for use by fully mechanized and automated furniture manufacturing units whose numbers are growing by the day. Customer, too, are becoming more aware of the benefits of having calibrated plywood. At Trojan, we had realised this advantage quite early on, and as such, have made investments towards, and have completed commissioning of, state-of-the-art calibrator machinery during FY 2016-17 itself. Today, we bring out plywood as calibrated for all thicknesses above 6 mm.
Q. Present manufacturing capacity and turnover of Trojan plywood?
A. We have given huge facelift to our Mangalore based plywood plant as we are catering to high quality customers. The entire factory has been installed with modern and automated machineries, such as prepressing technology with auto-loader, 8x4 ft. peeling machines, wide-belt sander (with conveyor system), inhouse resin plant, etc. and technically skilled and trained personnel. Today, Trojan’s factory is all set to go forward to the next level as far as multi-product ventures are concerned (including our new teak veneer range).
As of today, we have doubled our manufacturing capacity and have, more or less, arrived at our targeted turnover planned at the beginning of the year. Both our manufacturing capacity and expected turnover are set to go up in the near future, granted the demand in the interior furnishing industry.
One key highlight of our premium products is that they exceed IS: 710 specifications and that they are all fully calibrated from 6mm thickness upwards. Life time warranty backed by a Guarantee Card, uniform strength, structural balance, Quad-press technology and the unique Trojan core-protection technology which ensures that our products are resistant to both, termites and borers, are all welcome qualities as far as a designer is concerned. Great tensile strength has to be coupled with incredible bonding qualities. We have an in-house resin manufacturing unit and R& D facility that makes the best synthetic resins – another key quality which the careful designer seeks to ensure in his choice of plywood.
Q. Your opinion on Face veneer market such as: which one will sustain, Gurjan, Indonesia or Okume?
A. Indonesia face veneer, over the past few years, has been tried by many, but the quality of Indonesian face seemed to be no match for Gurjan face. In fact, if current market trends are to be believed, 75% of plywood, board and door manufacturers have quietly moved over to non- Gurjan face veneers. In this context, Okume from Gabon seem to be ready for a major presence anytime soon. Granted the difficult context that Gurjan-based commercial face veneer prices have sky-rocketed to a new and unprecedented high, the price for Gurjan is now being quoted 10% higher than the maximum last year. Moreover, with the availability of Gurjan timber in Myanmar declining even further, auction prices have moved beyond what was normally affordable. It should not be surprising, therefore, that the plywood industry in India looks set and ready to accept Okume face veneer as their best option for the years ahead.
Q. How do you cater economical plywood market because after GST, brands are looking this segment as an opportunity?
A. Our Company has now brought out a range of products which cater to all price-segments in the market. This is part of our vision to leave no market segment untouched when it comes to pricing.
Q. Would you plan to cater north India market and aggressive approach to West and eastern India market?
A. We already have effective sales teams functioning in Western India (Maharashtra, MP). We have also been in Eastern India since 2016, although the recession and other market factors have compelled us to move forward less aggressively in the East since the last one year. However, we are optimistic that, in the long term, we will make major inroads into that region as well. Our operations in north India will, however, take some more time since we are still in the planning and acquisition stage there.
Q. Recently Trojan has introduced Teak ply, please explain details. Would you come up with natural veneer range in future?
A. Yes, we have recently forayed into the veneer segment with the launch of our premium teak veneer. Going forward we will definitely be bringing in a wide range of veneers to cater to our customer demand.
Q. How do you see the future of plywood market in coming two years and vision of your brand?
A. There were a few challenges in the plywood market in 2018, but the future looks promising and optimistic. Overall, FY 2018-19 is turning out to be an interesting year for the plywood industry with the benefits of recent government measure coming into force. 2019-20 will be crucial for us since we are on a consolidation drive and are bringing in economy brands in plywood category to allow for better market penetration. The market in India is slowly granting acceptance to brands and semi-brands working with regular sales teams, better back-up technology and wider network. At Trojan, we hope to maintain our balance in controlling cost, for good product quality combined with wellconsidered promotional expenditure. We are sure that over a period of time, it will be the organized sectors with a level playing field that will benefit.
Q. Would you plan to expand your manufacturing set up in other parts of country?
A. We will look to consolidate our grip on the Southern, Eastern and Western markets in India before we move into the North. This is while we are also looking out for suitable land acquisition opportunities in North India.
Calibrated plywood provides for uniform thickness all across the panel. This is achieved by calibrating it in modern highend imported plywood calibrator machines. The singular advantage granted by ply boards having uniform thickness is that this quality makes them ideal panel products for use by fully mechanized and automated furniture manufacturing units whose numbers are growing by the day. Customer, too, are becoming more aware of the benefits of having calibrated plywood.
As of today, we have doubled our manufacturing capacity and have, more or less, arrived at our targeted turnover planned at the beginning of the year. Both our manufacturing capacity and expected turnover are set to go up in the near future, granted the demand in the interior furnishing industry.
Q. Please give you opinion on growing plantation of Melia-Dubia in South for Plywood industry?
A. In the present context, there is a need to scale-up already-developed agroforestry models using indigenous species for ecological sustainability and economic expansion. Owing to the scarcity of domestic timber resources and a burgeoning demand, wood imports in the country have doubled since 2006. Enhancing the efficiency of farms by planting and integrating fast-growing trees under farm forestry and agroforestry is a reasonable and realistic alternative to meet the ever-increasing demand for wood. Melia Dubia (in Tamil known as Malai Vembu), available in Karnataka and other areas in South India has been found to be an indigenous tree species which is fastgrowing and also adapts widely.
As far as productivity of Melia dubia is concerned, the species grows at a rate higher than Eucalyptus and Poplar. The wood quality of Melia dubia makes it a perfect raw material for manufacturing plywood, match sticks and for use in the paper industry. There is always a comparison between exotic and indigenous tree species in terms of productivity, but if we compare the yield and monetary returns of Melia dubia, it is far better than that of Eucalyptus and Poplar. With the focus now on conservation of natural forests, fast-growing indigenous
species can play a significant role to meet various requirements. Unless we look at plantation based alternative species of wood, it will be difficult to sustain the plywood industry.