The Indian arm of French firm Saint-Gobain is working to get back to ‘near-normal’ soon, following the impact of the recent ransomware attack that affected corporates worldwide, according to a top official.
The attack had impacted the company’s systems globally. “We did not halt our production or distribution,” said B. Santhanam, president and MD, flat glass — South Asia, Egypt and Malaysia, Saint-Gobain. “We have a strong disaster management system in place. We are working on an isolated mode now to service our customer needs. We will be back to near normal soon,” he said.”
The firm, he added, was bracing for the new tax regime in India. “We will start our first invoicing by midnight today,” he said.
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The company stopped invoicing for 12 hours from Friday noon to make a seamless transition to GST.
Mr. Santhanam said GST would usher in competitive advantage for the firm that was facing competition from unscrupulous traders on imports. “They are small in number. But, GST would make a big difference and there will be some behavioural change. We are not worried about transition to GST. You will have transitional pain. We expect good sales in July 2017,” said Mr. Santhanam.
Mr. Santhanam said the expansion of the float glass facility at Sriperumbudur, near here, would be completed by March next. It would increase the production capacity from 1,400 tonnes to 2,450 tonnes per annum. The company would be investing ₹1,100 crore, he said.
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The corporate office of Saint Gobain here has, meanwhile, been recertified with Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design gold rating by Green Business Certification Inc. for adopting the Arc platform.