Century Ply to reinforce laminate biz to take segment turnover to Rs 1,000cr in 4 years

Backed by the same quality commitment, the company expects revenue from its laminates to double to Rs 1,000 crore in the next four years

Century Plyboards (India) Ltd, aiming at a Rs 5,000 crore topline by FY'26, has announced that it will reinforce its high-margin laminates vertical by expanding its presence, and double sales to Rs 1000 crore in the segment over the next four years.

The company launched a new mass brand called 'Sainik' in order to address the untapped 80 per cent of the approximately Rs 8,000 crore laminate market, a senior company official said.

"We were previously catering only premium market with our existing Century brand laminates which is only 20 per cent of the industry, but with the new economy brand, we will be able to address a larger portion of the market," Century Plyboards executive director Keshav Bhajanka said.

Backed by the same quality commitment, the company expects revenue from its laminates to double to Rs 1,000 crore in the next four years, up from about Rs 500 crore currently, driven by its new mass segment laminate brand 'Sainik'.

Bhajanka said to cater to the additional volume, the company is in the process of adding both greenfield and brownfield capacity.

He said that laminate capacity at its Joka factory in West Bengal has been increased by adding fresh manufacturing lines to a total of seven.

Another laminate greenfield plant is also coming up in Andhra Pradesh at a capex of Rs 200 crore, Bhajanka said.

Speaking about the overall corporate level investment roadmap, the scion of the chairman Sajjan Bhajanka said the company is implementing Rs 2000 crore capex roadmap till FY'25 to ramp capacities through greenfield and brownfield expansions.

This capex will help attain a topline of Rs 5,000 crore in the next three years from Rs 3,000 crore in FY'22, Bhajanka said.

Century will invest Rs 600 crore in MDF and a particle board factory in Andhra Pradesh. Another particle board Greenfield project is coming up in Tamilnadu at the cost of Rs 500 crore.

Bhajanka said Rs 100 crore will go into a new plywood factory at Hoshiarpur.

He stated that MDF and particle board as a segment is growing faster than other verticals and the share will grow substantially in the overall revenue kitty.

Speaking about the marketing network, Bhajanka said the company has the largest distribution network but it will further expand deeper markets.

He pointed high-interest rate regime had impacted demand growth as customers are delaying furnishing projects but this would get corrected within the next two quarters.

According to industry estimates, the Indian plywood market size is near Rs 27,000-28,000 crore now and is expected to grow by 50 per cent by FY29.