6 minute read
PRIYAMVADA BHUMKAR
Priyamvada Bhumkar, Managing Director, Soujanya Color Pvt. Ltd. spoke about the global trends, R&D initiatives, manufacturing, capex, CSR initiatives and much more. Excerpts of the interview:
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MANAGING DIRECTOR, SOUJANYA COLOR PVT. LTD.
Global trends in Colorant in 2021 and how it will impact India?
The world is still grappling with the COVID situation and we are witnessing different scenarios globally. The demand in the emerging markets and particularly in India has seen an increased uptake. But on the supply side, there are issues of availability and crisis. Supplies particularly coming from Europe and China show a greater impact. Inflationary trends on prices of most materials are real and are putting a lot of pressure on companies top line and bottom line. to the entire South and North American market from this plant.
In terms of products and industries, we have etched out newer verticals for our business. In the past couple of years, we have developed products and colour solutions for the inks, personal care, construction and plastics industries. These strategies will allow us to move ahead and sustain and grow our market share.
Milestones achieved by Soujanya Color in FY 2020-21 and plans for FY 2021-22?
FY 2020-21 has been challenging for everyone but we have emerged well. We will see a growth in volume and value of 10-15 per cent despite the lockdown situation in the first quarter of FY 20-21 and the credit for this goes to our team. For FY2021-22, we have set a 35 per
Soujanya Color is top 3 colorant cent growth target for our business. We manufacturers globally. Reasons hope to start our Mexico manufacturing for your success? plant this year. We plan to strengthen Soujanya Color’s success globally is our global footprint by being closer to based on several factors. The key among our customers in each region. During them has been our unrelenting focus on the past couple of years, we have estabthe core business of colourants, tech- lished a subsidiary in Mexico and branch nological strength, building vast opera- offices in Singapore and Brazil. This will tional and supply chain capability, deep allow us to be local in those regions and understanding & commitment towards service the customers there well. global customers and understanding the fine nuances of different global markets. Company’s performance vis-a-vis
We are looking to sustain and revenue and profit during FY 2020grow our market share by en- 21 and forecast for FY 2021-22? tering new markets where We will close this year with we see significant poten- “The Mexico plant will volume growth of about tial and by expanding entail a modest capital 10 per cent and value our product and service investment this year growth of about five offerings for newer in- and acquiring land for to seven per cent. We dustries. For example, our further expansion expect profitability to we have been able to in India will also entail be more or less in the make inroads into Latin some investment” same range. We have American markets with yet to assess the impact the focus that we have had of the surge in raw material on that market, building a large prices but hope that these will footprint in the entire region including be offset to some extent by some of the countries like Mexico, Costa Rica, Gua- other costs being lower due to the COtemala, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Ecua- VID situation. dor, Peru, Venezuela, etc. We will begin We are targeting a growth of 35 per manufacturing in Mexico this year with cent for the next year and are confident a new plant for which we have already of achieving it. Growth drivers for our finalised a location. We propose to cater business in the coming year would be as
follows: Demand uptick from not only the domestic markets, but we are seeing significant growth in our exports; focused marketing efforts for selected markets such as Latin America, Africa, the Indian subcontinent and South-East Asia; focus on new industries of inks and personal care, and strategies for an integrated supply chain to strengthen our cost and service advantages.
How has Soujanya performed internationally? Are you focusing on any new geography?
We have performed well internationally. Exports have been a strategic focus area, as we have built significant capabilities over the years to cater to global markets. We are looking at exports as a thrust area and have made plans to grow our exports by 80 per cent this year. In the past couple of years, we have established a subsidiary in Mexico and branch offices in Singapore and Brazil. We plan to start a manufacturing facility in Mexico in 2021. With all these plans on the anvil, we are looking to focus on Latin America, SEA, Asia and Africa. We also have plans to explore USA as a market for our industrial colourants and dispersions for inks
products.
R&D initiatives that the company is focusing in 2021?
R&D and Innovation have been a key focus area for our business. The development of new products and complete solutions in colour have allowed us to be in sync with emerging market trends, technological changes and customer expectations. Our R&D function is integrated closely with our marketing teams which allows them to understand customer needs better. It is also integrated with our manufacturing process to quickly standardise and scale up new products seamlessly.
Our key achievements in 2020 have been the development of full range of colourant solutions for our printing inks customers and a line of colourants for the personal care industry. We have also successfully developed and standardised a system of industrial colourants for wood and industrial coatings for a leading paint company in Asia where we replaced European products. Establishing Soujanya in the LATAM markets has been another key achievement.
For 2021, we have charted out an aggressive R&D program: Consolidating product offerings for the ink and personal care industries with new developments in solvent-based and UV curable inks; consolidating market share in paint & coatings sector by doing customized developments of colourants for key customers; cost will be a major
focus area and we look forward to doing a lot of work on cost optimization of formulations to combat input price increases, and green and sustainable chemistry will be another focus area to meet regulatory and environmental standards of global markets.
Are you planning for manufacturing expansion within India or outside India?
We are planning for both. In India, we are in the process of expanding our capacities by 30per cent to keep up with demand. We will be expanding not only constructed space in our plant but also installing new equipment for handling higher volumes. A new manufacturing facility is also on the cards in a two to three-year time frame.
Internationally, we expect to set up a new manufacturing facility functional this year in Mexico. This plant would cater to our markets in North, Central and South America. We are also looking at acquisition targets in the colourant space for speed of growth.
Capex invested in FY 2020-21 and plans for FY 2021-22? Automation and digitalization plans?
We do make Capex investments on an on-going basis to support our growth plans. The Mexico plant will entail a modest capital investment this year and acquiring land for our further expansion in India will also entail some investment.
As far as automation and digitalization are concerned, we operate a fully automated manufacturing plant on the PLC SCADA system which is the largest in Asia. We are looking at further automation in manufacturing this year with end-of-line packaging solutions through robotics, etc. to boost productivity and efficiencies. In 2021, we are working on integrating the PLC SCADA system with SAP S4 Hana 1610 on Google Cloud for seamless data transmission and better analytics.
Future business outlook in FY 2021-22?
The future business outlook looks bright, exciting and luminous with endless possibilities for growth, development and putting Soujanya as a dominant player in the field of colour. We are quite confident of achieving our target.
