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January 20-February 2, 2014 Sowing seeds of growth Adventz group targets `30,000 crore over the next five years `30 RNI No.35850/80; Reg. No. MH/MR/South-82/2012-14 TN/CH(C)250/2012-14; Published on: Every alternate Monday; Posted at Patrika Channel Sorting office, Mumbai-400001 on every alternate Monday-Tuesday n NELP YELP n JAPAN IN INDIA n RANBAXY LTD n TATA CHEMICALS Akshay Poddar Executive Director, Zuari Agro Chemicals Saroj Poddar Chairman, Adventz group

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Page 1: Sowing seeds of growth - Zuari Infraworld seeds of growth ... near mysore, is nearing completion. ... panies such as gec, areva, avery – but did not have any equity stake

January 20-February 2, 2014

Sowing seeds of growthAdventz group targets `30,000 crore over the next five years

`30RNI No.35850/80; Reg. No. MH/MR/South-82/2012-14 TN/CH(C)250/2012-14; Published on: Every alternate Monday; Posted at Patrika Channel Sorting office, Mumbai-400001 on every alternate Monday-Tuesday

n NELP YELP

n JAPAN iN iNdiA

n RANBAXY LTd

n TATA chEmicALs

Akshay PoddarExecutive Director, Zuari Agro Chemicals

saroj PoddarChairman,Adventz group

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busi n e ss i n di a u the m aga zi n e oF the cor por ate wor ld • no. 936Contents

COVER FEATURE38

Make way for change

the adventz group aims to become

a $5 billion group through

transformational changes across

sectors

c o V e r p h o t o g r a p h b ys a J a l b o s e

u F O C U S u

NELP yelp 46lack of clear policy framework may dampen bidder enthusiasm

u C O R P O R A T E R E P O R T S u

RANBAXY 56after the buyout of ranbaxy, the Japanese company daiichi sankyo is destroying its value

TATA CHEMICALS 62

tata chemicals, the chemical, fertiliser and consumer products behemoth, is strategising growth with a human touch

RS SOFTWARE 66this it firm is a niche player in the emerging e-payment industry

u M E R G E R S & A C Q U I S I T I O N S u

76French lactalis plans to acquire tirumala milk

for $275 million

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busi n e ss i n di a u the m aga zi n e oF the cor por ate wor ldCover Feature

an indian conglomerate partnered by world lead-ers, the saroj poddar (67)-led adventz group has global ambitions. after

playing a role in india’s economic growth and prosperity the group is all set to usher in transformational changes to ensure that it continues to remain meaningful in the fast chang-ing business environment. one of the few major groups still headquartered in Kolkata, adventz has a significant presence in agriculture, engineer-ing and infrastructure, real estate, consumer durables and services. it is now deepening its engagement with consumers through new initiatives.

the newly christened adventz group, brought together under one corporate umbrella, comprises 23 companies in various verticals. it is a major producer of a wide range of complex fertilisers and other agri-cultural inputs such as seeds, pesti-cides, micro-nutrients and specialty fertilisers. another major vertical is modern, new generation freight wag-ons of which it is the largest manu-facturer in the private sector. the group has engineering expertise and offers technical consultancy, project management and contracting ser-vices to chemical, fertiliser, oil & gas, petrochemical, power and other infrastructure projects.

adventz, has also recently ven-tured into real estate and aims to create quality affordable homes and office spaces. zuari infraworld india limited, under which its real estate business runs, is likely to touch a top line of `8,000 crore by 2018, making it the largest vertical outside the fer-tiliser business. “we will be the sec-ond biggest group entity in the next five years, with a land bank in excess of 5,000 acres spread across the coun-try and with planned investments of `4,000 crore in the real estate market,”

make over at adventzThe Adventz group aims to become a $5 billion group by 2018

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The Poddars: Jyotsna and Saroj, with son Akshay

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says aloke banerjee, md, real estate arm, adventz. its landmark residen-tial-cum-commercial project, located near mysore, is nearing completion.

in the consumer durables segment, the group makes ready-to-assemble furniture and has a complete range of fittings and hardware to cater to all three segments of furniture manufac-turing – office, residential and kitchen & bath. it also operates stylespa – india’s largest retail furniture chain.

poddar has had to shift gears in the last few years. he had formerly invested in a number of companies such as gillette, which he brought to india in 1987. always known as the man who brought gillette to india but choosing to keep a low profile, poddar came into the limelight fol-lowing the death of his father-in-law K.K. birla, who had only three daugh-ters. thus, his wife Jyotsna, birla’s sec-ond daughter, inherited a number of companies, most significantly zuari, which he is now actively managing.

poddar’s father badri prasad pod-dar was originally involved in the automobile and real estate industries and was on the board of shaw wal-lace in its heydays. they also set up a spinning mill in 1960 under pod-dar projects. “my first major project was gillette, which i started working on from my school days, as i wanted to bring them to india. it was my first venture and is still close to my heart. we were also involved with the sew-ing machine manufacturing com-pany singer, which i took over as chairman from Vijay mallya’s father. it was a joint venture to manufacture sewing machines in india. later, our family business expanded to tea, jute,

and textile mills, and my five brothers and i set up a number of projects all over the country,” says poddar, add-ing that they were also the country’s biggest coal miners before nationali-sation of the sector in 1971.

after the poddar family split, saroj poddar got gillette exclusively. “i also got involved in a mini-steel plant called pench steel in calcutta, which i eventually sold off. thereafter, i got fully involved with gillette, actively managing it. i also got into a joint ven-ture with duracell (long life alkaline batteries), which ultimately gillette acquired. gillette india today com-prises blades, razors, portable power, oral care and personal care products,” says poddar, who has retained a 4.49 per cent stake in the company, after divesting 7.9 per cent in favour of the parent company, which is now part of p&g globally. “on 9 January, saroj

poddar had his last meeting as chair-man of the board of directors of gil-lette india ltd. i want to thank him for his tremendous contributions to growing the gillette business in india from the beginning, 44 years ago, into the vibrant business it is today. i want to especially recognise his sup-port and partnership in finding a good solution to the sebi requirement with regards to the jv shareholding structure and promise to care of his legacy,” says a.g. lafley, chairman of the board & executive president, p&g worldwide.

poddar then started a company to make indian furniture, the only ready-to-assemble furniture at that point of time in india, in collabora-tion with gautier of France. “in my own sphere, i had gillette, pench, furniture and another joint venture with hettich of germany, a 50:50 jv, which is a phenomenal success today,” he says.

Family legacyK.K. birla, who had three daugh-ters and no sons, divided his empire amongst his daughters in such a way that poddar inherited zuari and tex-maco. “i deem it a privilege that the responsibility of handling these pub-lic entities was entrusted to me by mr. birla. the zuari group and the tex-maco group together represent the twin pillars of a remarkable entre-preneurial vision – the vision of the late K.K. birla, who dreamt of a strong and resurgent india, which would occupy a proud place in the family of nations.” poddar describes birla as an extremely systematic and meticulous man. “today, after his death, there

ADVENTZ GROUP COMPANIES

AgricultureZuari Agro ChemicalsParadeep Phosphates

Zuari Rotem Speciality FertilisersZuari Maroc Phosphates

Zuari Fertilisers & ChemicalsGobind Sugar Mills

Emerging lifestylesZuari Infraworld India

Indian Furniture ProductsHettich India

Style Spa Furniture

ServicesZuari Investments

Zuari Management ServicesAdventz Investments & Holdings

Adventz Securities EnterprisesAdventz Industries India

Lionel IndiaZuari Global

Engineering & InfrastructureTexmaco Infra & Holdings

Texmaco Rail & EngineeringTexmaco UGL Rail

Simon IndiaZuari Indian Oil-tanking

Banerjee: planned investments

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was no confusion or bitterness in the family. whatever was decided by him was well-accepted by every single per-son and, according to me, this was a tribute to his foresight and wisdom.”

“that vision has spawned a host of diverse enterprises in our group, which span key economic sectors. however, businesses today are being buffeted by major winds of change. in such an environment, mere incre-mental change will not suffice. organ-isations have to radically transform themselves to meet these challenges. we therefore recently repositioned the group under a unified banner ‘adventz’. earlier, the group compa-nies were operating in separate enve-lopes without a unified vision. we will seek to leverage the power of the group’s diversity in terms of knowl-edge, best practices and technologi-cal excellence to effect genuine and exponential progress in the sectors that we operate in, not only to pos-itively impact india’s development and progress but also to emerge as a vibrant global brand,” says poddar.

saroj poddar has also been chair-man of a number of foreign com-panies such as gec, areva, avery – but did not have any equity stake

in them. “even today, i am chairman, zuari cement, which is completely owned by italcement. i have moved from investing to gradually managing my own businesses, but it is not that i only used to sit in on board meetings as an investor,” laughs poddar.

Acquisitionsadventz has lately been in the news for a number of acquisitions. “the acqui-sition of Kalindee has been sealed and we already hold 40 per cent. texmaco has a majority stake now and Kalindee rail nirman is a part of the adventz group,” says ramesh maheshwari, md, texmaco.

“we have finalised another part-nership with ugl of austalia, which will help texmaco move from manu-facturing only wagons to value-added products. there are talks of a part-nership with tovax of France for leas-ing and another joint venture with a leading company from the east for coach and emu coach-making. we are also in talks with another lead-ing global manufacturer for higher value railway products with the most advanced technology,” says poddar.

texmaco has four plants in ben-gal: belgharia for casting equipment; agarpara for wagon building works; a new coach factory in sodepur for mak-ing emu coaches; and one in panihati for heavy equipment for dams and hydel power projects. “our new jv with ugl of australia – texmaco ugl pvt ltd – has commissioned a new factory in belgharia, which is com-plete and equipped with the latest machines. we will make fabricated locomotives and wagon parts for sup-ply in australia and india and this is a part of our organic growth plan,” says maheshwari.

zuari is looking at a major upgrada-tion of their goa project to add capac-ity to the phosphate facilities. the company has entered into a partner-ship with mitsubishi in peru for rock phosphate. “we are now obliged to buy rock from peru. to use this rock, we have commenced setting up a large `5,000 crore project in ras-al-Khaimah (in the uae),” says poddar, adding that major expansions are underway in paradeep phosphates too.

the group plans to take the turn-over to $5 billion over the next five years through organic as well as

Texmaco Rail

20

30

40

50

60

7067

44

15 Jan 2013 – 15 Jan 2014

Share price (`)

Zuari Agro Chemicals

50

100

150

200

250

300

254

150

15 Jan 2013 – 15 Jan 2014

Share price (`)

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Maheshwari: organic growth plan

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inorganic growth. “we have plans of backward integration, which will lead to some amount of forward integra-tion as well, such as a million tonne phosphatic fertiliser plant in ras-al-Khaimah, as well as a half million tonne phosphoric acid plant in the same location. we have also tied-up with mitsibushi for phosphate rock in peru, as that is a fertiliser mineral not available in india. so, all this, along with texmaco’s partnership with ugl australia, optimisation of the ppl plant at goa via an ongoing `2,000 crore project, expansion of the recently acquired Kalindee rail nir-man and plans of a major urea facil-ity will definitely lead to an increase in our turnover and we should com-fortably be looking at $5 billion over the next five years.”

Hettichadventz started commercial oper-ations with hettich in 2000. “we started at a moderate level and com-pounded a growth of about 30 per cent in the last five years. today, we are the market leaders with a pan-in-dia presence and a portfolio of over 10,000 products. this year, we will become the largest subsidiary of het-tich worldwide and will close at `375 crore,” says anil goel, md, hettich india. hettich has also commissioned india’s first plant (`500-600 crore) to manufacture their products in the country, which will come up in bar-oda this year, and both adventz and the parent company hettich will share the costs.

poddar has one daughter (married) and one son akshay (37), who has been actively involved in the group since 2000. though he is involved with all verticals, he looks after paradeep phosphates and now the real estate business, adventz’s newest ven-ture. “For us, real estate is important, as it has the potential to be a big busi-ness. we have been actively involved in this sector for the last two years. it is expected to grow immensely over the next five to seven years. in india, a developing market, real estate has always been attractive, as it has the potential to give good returns. this sector will help us diversify into other businesses as well. we have projects

in delhi, Karnataka (mysore and Vrindavan) and goa and are actively looking into bringing something to calcutta,” says akshay, adding that all the group companies have immense potential and huge growth opportu-nities, which he wants to pursue.

“we have an open mind when it comes to acquisitions, as all our com-panies are profit-driven,” says akshay. “we also believe in getting the best people for all our businesses as we are a professionally managed com-pany. all our subsidiaries are actively managed by appropriate profession-als.” akshay is married and has two small children.

zuari agrochemicals was set up in the late 1960s, early 1970s, as a joint venture between the birlas and us steel corp. this plant, commissioned

in 1974, was built in goa at a cost of `50-60 crore. another plant was added in goa in 1984-85, by which time capacity had reached a mil-lion tonnes. zuari went about look-ing for expansion in the mid-1980s after establishing existing operations and got the licence for a new plant in chambal. this project was completed in 1993 and was a major expansion.

“major changes happened after 1991-92, when the government was looking at subsidies,” says Krishnan, md, zuari agrochemicals. “we also wanted to diversify and took over a cement plant and expanded it, then did a joint venture with italcement and further expanded capacity by buying Vishnu cement. we exited this venture in 2008 with handsome gains. in 2002, we bid for paradeep phosphates limited (ppl), which was being offered under the nda’s divest-ment programme. the listed com-pany, which was bought for about `150 crore, has a turnover of `5,000 crore today. it was a loss-making company, which we converted into a profit-making one, with the same management team and, today, it is a success story. and, we still hold 80 per cent of the company. when we exited cement, we knew we wanted to aggressively invest in fertilis-ers and phosphates and also look at backward integration.”

“ppl was set up in 1982 and was a sick company when we purchased it, along with moroccan partners. it had a `700 crore carry-forward loss. we turned the company around and it was making profits by 2005. we wiped off all losses by 2009-10. the way we were able to achieve this was by not throwing out existing employees, but instead taking their help. we brought a lot of brand image of the group and today we are the third largest fertiliser

Financials of listed entites

Consolidated figures. *Standalones. + Post restructuring. @Includes shares of profits from associates

(` crore)

Company Sales Sales Change Net profit Net profit Change EPS (`) FY13 FY12 (%) FY13 FY12 (%) FY13Zuari Agro Chemicals 7,889 8,233 -4 64 164 -61 5.38Texmaco Rail* 829 767 8 94 93 1 5.18Zuari Global+ 398 1,877 -79 16 -218 -107 15.29Kalindee Rail & Nirman* 257 244 5 8 782 -99 6.53Texmaco Infrastructure@ 18 17 10 44 47 -6 3.47

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Krishnan: urea policy is key

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producer after coromandel and ifco, with a presence in 11-12 states,” says s.s. nandurdikar, md, ppl & simon india limited, who has been with the group since 1998.

Expanding capacitysimon india limited (sil) is a turn-key project executor of highly speci-alised engineering projects and it has recently completed a number of proj-ects abroad. sil has a turnover of `160 crore and was originally set up as a 50:50 jv with simon group, uK.

ppl also exports some of its prod-ucts to nepal and bangladesh, where it has an excellent brand image. “we produce 1.2 million tonnes of fertilis-ers per annum and we will be expand-ing capacity to add another 1.5 million tonnes, by adding a sulphuric acid plant. another 2 million tonnes will then be added. ifc of washing-ton has sanctioned us $50 million for this expansion. we will also be look-ing at an ammonia and urea plant,” says nandurdikar, adding that they will also consider backward integra-tion, if they get the opportunity as many countries don’t currently allow mining of phosphate rock.

since 2007, zuari started the

modernisation of its goa plant. “we went from traditional naphtha-based manufacturing to gas-based manu-facturing. we also looked into oppor-tunities to acquire phosphate mines and looked at peru, did a jv with mit-subishi. moreover, at paradeep, we are doubling capacity to four million tonnes and setting up a new plant. by the second quarter of 2014, we expect to realise the full potential of what we have done. we are also closely look-ing at ammonia, which will be our new focus area. meanwhile, when we looked at urea, we picked up a 6 per cent stake in nagarjuna Fertiliz-ers and a 16.5 per cent stake in man-galore chemicals, where we would rather do a bilateral settlement, with Vijay mallya, than a hostile bid. we have long-term associations with global exporters and in india the east and south-west parts of the country are key states,” says Krishnan.

chambal Fertilisers ltd, another company owned by K.K. birla, is now evenly divided among his three sons-in-law, apart from what zuari already held (14 per cent). “chambal is india’s largest private sector urea producer. it is an allied business and we mostly cover the entire country for fertilisers

through ppl (east), chambal (north) and zuari (west and south),” says poddar who is chairman at cham-bal although his brothers-in-law have board representation as well.

zuari is actively looking for investments abroad and their ras-al-Khaimah project is at an advanced stage. meanwhile, they reorganised the companies between manufac-turing companies under zuari agro-chemicals and investment companies under zuari global.

the first real estate project is com-ing up in mysore – three million sq ft of residential development of which the first phase is over and the second one has been launched. “this project is encouraging in terms of response. now, we want to make use of our surplus land bank and have already launched projects in delhi, goa, etc,” says Krishnan, adding that this new vertical holds immense potential, the turnover of which will be `150 crore in Fy14, and likely to jump up quickly. “we did not go around buying land as we had a land bank but did not want to sell plain land. so, we decided to tap into the real estate sector and the operations for this are headquartered in bangalore. we initially looked at

Growth through acquisition has been a way of life for the K.K. Birla group.

Dr Krishna Kumar Birla in one of his rare interviews to Business India in 2002 had stated that the group was looking to acquire stakes in psus which were in the process of being disinvested. “We are also looking at investing in setting up a fertiliser unit abroad.” Zuari along with Chambal Fertilisers was one of the largest fertiliser groups in the country. It ventured into cement by acquiring Shri Vishnu Cements. Zuari Cement was later formed by transferring this unit along with the cement division of Texmaco, acquired earlier. It entered the finance sector by acquiring itc Classic Home Finance (later christened Birla Home Finance Limited). Green Tech Seeds

International was acquired in 2001. Ini-tiatives into it and home furniture were also undertaken.

Notwithstanding the various initia-tives taken by K.K. Birla during his life-time and Saroj Poddar thereafter, the Zuari group never got the valuation it deserved from the markets. Despite its various transformation initiatives it was still clubbed with the old econ-omy groups. Zuari Agro Chemicals has a market cap of just `626 crore and Zuari Global a market cap of a little over `200 crore. Together they are valued at under `850 crore. Both the Zuari group com-panies, as also Texmaco, are dependent on the government for growth. And that is one of the reasons, according to analysts, for poor discounting. Analysts hope that Saroj Poddar’s initiatives to get deeper into the seed business as also consumer facing business could change that perception. Property development could also be a game changer for the group and result in better valuation. The challenge will be to change investor perceptions. u

Poor market valuationThe stock market still perceives Adventz to be largely an old economy group

Low ValuationMarlet cap (` crore)

Kalindee Rail

Texmaco Infra

Texmaco Rail

Zuari Global

Zuari Agro 634

202

309

139

120

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sezs but then realised the vast poten-tial beyond that. there are no corpo-rate brands in this sector; so, there is immense scope,” says akshay.

the entire group has a turnover of `18,000 crore, with about `12,000 crore coming from the fertiliser ver-tical (zuari, chambal, and paradeep). the group has begun backward inte-gration as well in terms of both rock and acid, which they need as raw materials. “we will further our ammonia capacity globally and our peru and ras-al-Khaimah projects are underway. as far as forward integra-tion is concerned, we believe in mar-ket expansions. we have also started looking at corporate farming – tell-ing farmers about cost-effective ways of farming to double his income,” says Krishnan.

a urea policy is to be announced soon which Krishnan believes will be key for them. “there will be signifi-cant opportunities, if this happens as, right now, urea is too controlled in terms of import. currently, only the government imports. if this opens up, we will have great opportunity,” he says, adding that the fertiliser sec-tor is also not completely opened up as nobody is allowed to import and export freely – and india has a short-age of materials, particularly gas, for fertilisers. the zuari india oil tank-ing co has also thrown huge poten-tial for the state of goa, where the facility is. “we are getting bp, hc, etc, as customers,” says Krishnan.

“we’ve grown with a lot of part-nerships and internal accruals. we have worked really well with jvs such as simon india, hettich and gillette,

where saroj poddar is still promoter chairman. things have grown signif-icantly since we took over mr birla’s companies in 2008 and real estate, paradeep, peru, ras-al-Khaimah – these all belong to saroj poddar’s era,” says Krishnan.

“we have known saroj pod-dar since the gillette acquisition in 2005 and are impressed with his pro-fessional approach towards work-ing with multi-national companies. as chairman, he ran the board with the highest levels of rigour while, at the same time, entrusting the man-agement to make business choices to drive shareholder value-creation. having a deep understanding of the macro-economic environment, he played a key role in providing stra-tegic guidance. his straight-forward attitude and his focus on creating an open and trusting environment, has made him a highly respected business leader.” says shantanu Khosla, current managing director, gillette india.

“i have been working very closely with saroj poddar in my capacity as the managing director of gillette for over six years. it was a great learning experience for me. he has all the qual-ities of a great leader – his respect for people, his entrepreneurial and prac-tical approach in decision making, finding simple solutions for the most complex problems and above all his humility are all qualities that come

naturally to him,” says zubair ahmed, md, gsk ch, india subcontinent.

New initiativestylespa is now india’s largest furni-ture retail chain. it came into being in 1998, when the erstwhile K.K. birla group got into discussions with gau-tier, a French company, which was manufacturing modern furniture. “at that point in time, when the collab-oration took place, the base was not only the interest of the indian market but also india becoming a manufac-turing hub for gautier global,” says Jairath, md, stylespa.

a new manufacturing complex was set up in chennai in 1998 and gau-tier india was launched. “operations started out of chennai by testing the indian market through some projects. however, after four to five years, vol-umes didn’t pick up and there was a certain amount of strain. eventually the venture matured and, after the exit of gautier of France, two compa-nies emerged – ifpl (a manufacturing entity with stylespa as the distribu-tor) and spfl (the new retail arm of the entity). thereafter, the operations moved into the amalgamation of the two companies running the business and the focus shifted entirely to the domestic market in a big way, along with exports for some players such as walmart,” says Jairath.

the response towards stylespa has been good as the quality is high, feels akshay. “we have the largest manufacturing unit in india and 115 retail outlets spread across the coun-try in 65 cities. there is quality con-trol for all our products and there are only a few organised players in this sector. perhaps godrej is the only one but they are mainly into office systems,” he says.

“about six years back, there was a thought process that the chan-nel side of the business (selling fur-niture through channel distributors too, instead of just from their own/franchise stores) should be tapped – so we test-marketed impulse furni-ture (which is bought on an impulse), computer furniture, etc, which has now become big – we now need to use our capacity and serve the dis-tribution market. the two segments

Market Capital

(` crore)

Zuari AgroChemicals

DeepakFertilisers

GNFC

Chambal*Fertilisers

GSFC

CorommandelInternational

6,810

2,103

1,620

1,136

909

634

*Group company with Zuari being a 15 equal partner with other groups

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Nandurdikar: brand image

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– stylespa serves b2c retail consumer and zuari is a value segment serving the distribution market,” says Jairath.

stylespa has also started looking at the institutional segment. three years back, stylespa wanted to expand fur-ther and decided to collaborate with two italian brands to establish their stores in india. “chateau d’ax and milano design were in the luxury retail segment and we opened five stores for them. but they were too niche and the volumes were limited, so we exited this year,” says Jairath.

the kitchen segment has also become important for the company. there is high growth in india in this sector and players are few and small. “no one has national ambition and this requires techno expertise. we had this expertise because of ifpl and decided to utilise this in our kitch-ens portfolio. we now have a kitch-ens division separately,” says Jairath, adding that they have done a lot of business analysis in the last year to look at growth segments and have decided upon significant moderni-sation of projects. “we have set up a modernisation team and will go mar-ket by market and execute the brand and product mix to contemporarise the business,” he says.

Jairath feels stylespa has lived out its longevity period in the last 15 years. “now is the time to change with a five-year perspective. we are look-ing at new retail formats – home and

kitchen formats integrated together but in an optimum way. our exist-ing formats will be converted into modern retail environments with a new product mix. we are also look-ing at being more solutions-oriented. stylespa has already started in the dig-ital e-commerce market and we have multiple channel tie-ups with compa-nies such as zensaar and snapdeal. a dedicated stylespa e-commerce initia-tive is to be launched over the next couple of months,” he says.

stylespa is not just present in met-ros but also in tier i, ii and iii cities – where few players have tried to pen-etrate. “we have over 800 dealers in

130 towns and we want to leverage this penetration pan-india. our combined stylespa and zuari furniture turn-over will touch `250 crore in 2013-14 and we are looking at doubling the turnover over the next three years.”

poddar has come a long way from being an investor and low-pro-file yet astute businessman to being the owner of one of the largest con-glomerates of india. not stopping at what they currently own and run, adventz’s plunge into the real estate market shows their zest towards con-tinuing to build new businesses and enter industries which they feel have potential in the near future.

as a concept, adventz’s strategy is to enter new lower risk businesses such as real estate, furniture and seeds as their flagship businesses of fertilisers and wagons are more gov-ernment-influenced. but these busi-nesses are more likely to evolve over the years as policies such as the urea policy are bound to change for the better. “what we see as a limiting fac-tor today, might prove differently for us in the future,” says poddar.

poddar, who works five days a week and believes in spending quality lei-sure time over the week-end, is an avid art collector. often called a con-servative industrialist, time will only tell what new tags he earns, once the group’s latest sunrise sector – the huge real estate arm – takes off.

u s a l o n i J h u n J h u n w a l l a

jairath: time for a change