Swastik Tiles – Scaling new summits

Swastik Tiles is a market leader in the manufacturing of wall and floor tiles for the commercial and residential segments. Philip Yorke talked to Aditya Vyas, the company’s marketing director, about its latest investments in advanced manufacturing technology and move into new markets.

Swastik Tiles was founded as a privately held company in Ahmedabad near Gujarat, West India in 1995. The company operates five modern manufacturing facilities all within the Gujarat region and each with its own specialised production facilities. Its diverse range of ceramic and vitrified tiles include digital double-fastfired glazed wall tiles, glazed and unglazed vitrified tiles and white body floor tiles as well as porcelain and customised speciality tiles.

The strength of the Swastik Group’s remarkable success lies in its commitment to investing in the latest technology and brand-building, hence the group leads the field by constantly innovating and upgrading its portfolio. In its bid to become a truly global player in the ceramics market, the company has clearly focused on innovation and reliable high quality products. With carefully selected raw materials and precisely controlled production processes the company is setting new standards in the ceramics industry.

Vibrant collection

Swastik Tiles offer a uniquely vivid and vibrant collection of patterns, colours and textured tiles. Together these create an infinite choice for both interiors and exteriors and offer stylish solutions for diverse architectural needs such as wall coverings for residential and commercial areas, flooring for outdoor settings and large-scale architectural projects and urban designs.

Helping to achieve this design and product diversity, the company works closely with its international partners such as Sacmi, CretaPrint, Durst-Phototechnik, Torrecid, Vidres and Itaca-Esmalglass. Mr Vyas remarked: “With our five state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities located around Gujarat, we are able to produce a huge range of tiles of various sizes and thicknesses. From one plant we produce small porcelain tiles in 30X30cm and from another two plants we produce multicharge & also inkjet glazed porcelain tiles measuring up to 80X120 cm. Our largest sales are in these segments but besides these we also produce wall tiles, from 30X30cm to 30X90cm, and white body floor tiles.

The business has distribution agents in many countries, particularly serving its export markets of eastern Europe and Latin America. However, Swastik is looking to build upon its European presence and has already established a sales network in the UK. It is also active in Australia, where it recognises exciting growth opportunities, although the great long term objective is to break into the North American market.

Mr Vyas added: “We are incorporating the latest technology in every aspect of our production processes which means that we are in a position to cover any specification from any company anywhere in the world. We are continually expanding our plants to meet the increasing global demand and will be ramping up production by 40–50 per cent in the next two years. I would say that our main advantages over our competitors are our unrivalled quality, design diversity, high-tech manufacturing and reliable delivery systems. We currently employ more than 2200 people and last year recorded sales of about €80 million. This year revenue from operations will be close to €90 million.”

Where style meets technology

Since the company was founded it has been dedicated to bringing fresh and innovative ideas to its customers. In order to achieve this Swastik has embarked upon a continuous programme of investment in the latest manufacturing technology. The company’s chairman Girish Patel commented: “At Swastik we are working with this philosophy of innovation combined with technology and through every practice we are able to add new accomplishments for our customers. It is our dream to beautify every space with elegance, perfection and quality products, and our core strategy has been to not only keep up with the latest technological advances, but also to help create them.” n

For further information about Swastik Tiles’ innovative products and services, please visit: www.swastiktiles.in