Finolex Industries plans to move in a big way into water management.
The company has PVC manufacturing facilities in Pune, Ratnagiri and Vadodara, and as part of the this initiative, it will spend Rs.90 crore over three years to increase capacity of its PVC pipes and fittings plants by around 40 per cent to 3.20 lakh tonnes annually.
“We have been in the pipe and fittings business for 25 years, and have a huge 15,000 dealer and sub-dealer network. With the government initiative for access to safe drinking water and toilets, we thought it was time to leverage our strong brand and experience in the industry,’’ Finolex Executive Chairman Prakash P. Chhabria told this correspondent. The company also launched a new website finolexwater.com.
Finolex was open to the idea of either entering into joint ventures or even buying technology for its water management business. Mr. Chhabria said, “we will introduce new ‘path-breaking’ products in the next few years, and will also provide new business for our dealers.’’
However, he did not expect the new business to provide additional revenues in the first year. “We plan to invest around Rs.50 crore per annum in the water management business over the next few years.’’
Finolex reported a turnover of Rs.2,453 crore in 2013-14, and expects to grow at 15-20 per cent annually over the next five years. “We should reach Rs.6,000 crore (around $1 billion) in the next five years, by which time we expect water management business to contribute around Rs.1,000 crore.’’
Expressing regret that the company had not entered the bottled water business before it took off in a big way in India, Mr. Chhabria said, “it would have been a natural progression for us and we would have loved to enter it but now it is too late and that market is already saturated.’’
