Aluminium Composite Panel (ACP) industry has seen 3 fold growth during a decade, with more than 50 manufacturing establishments. ACP as a product has also become very well accepted for facade application in India be it high rise, commercials, governments and office buildings. With urbanisation and growth of the building industry, the product demands have also noted to increase because it applies in a big volume for a particular project or facade. Its maintenance free nature, variety of colours, hassle free installation, durability, look, designs etc has made this product more useful, which has been well accepted for exterior grade facade purpose.
Besides Facade, ACP product has created other applications also such as Signage, Partition Panels, Bus Bodies, HPL Clad etc which has given this product other opportunities of growth. But, it seems that this industry has not reached that economy of scale as expected by such a growing industry and the ACP sector still comes under small and medium level industry tag, however, there is opportunity to become a large scale sector. The Torch Bearing brands in ACP such as Aludecor, Alstone, Alstrong etc did well in this segment but why did an ACP brand not reach to Rs 500 crores plus turnover bracket?
ACP brands must learn from MDF industry, where brands like Action Tesa, Greenpanel have reached to Rs. 1000 crores bracket in just 10 years time. I feel ACP brands missed the bus for a time being, but they can catch if they plan and execute with a set target and economy of scale.
The per capita consumption of ACP is very meagre in India at present, thus there is huge opportunity of further growth with volume. But volume should not be at the stake of quality. The consistent good quality would help in building trust of this product among users because it is a big challenge of this industry, as users are not much satisfied with present quality offering, which is one of the hurdles of this sector growth in exterior application, as per recent survey among many users. Decorative Laminates brands have been doing well in this category although this is costlier than ACP but the users are much satisfied with quality and look, however this is limited to residential facade and fencing purposes. ACP brands must learn from MDF industry, where brands like Action Tesa, Greenpanel have reached to Rs. 1000 crores bracket in just 10 years time. I feel ACP brands missed the bus for a time being, but they can catch if they plan and execute with a set target and economy of scale.
This issue has special feature an interaction with some leading retailers such as Mr. Pankaj Kumar (Ply Mahal, Delhi), Mr. Vipul Vora (Su Veneers, Mumbai), Mr. Kailash Badgujar (Ganesh Ply, Ahmedabad), Mr. Anurag Agarwal (Shree Krishna Ply, Lucknow), Mr. Pankaj Jain (Jain Sons, Panchkula), Mr. Sanjay Jain (CLKM, Jaipur) and Mr. Deepak Agarwal (Krishna Ply, Bhubneshwar). Other retailers can learn from his view and thought, which would help them to grow. The interview with Ms Bhavana Bindra, MD, REHAU South Asia highlighted the vision of a company, who believe in quality products for further growth. News reports, product launches, innovations and happenings in the wood and decorative panel industry are also covered. Trade received good demand in Sept-October month, and hope the same in coming months, Shubh Deepawali to All of you.
Rajiv Parashar
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