HR Johnson Industrial Tile
Vikas Seth - Regional Head and Ravi Aravamuthan - General Manager addressing a press meet to announce Endura’s new business

In its quest to become one of the largest industrial tile manufacturing players in India, H&R Johnson, a division of Prism Cement Limited and a pioneer in ceramic tiles, has recently announced the expansion of industrial tiles manufacturing capacity at its Dewas unit in Madhya Pradesh, thereby, achieving a tile making capacity of high-value innovations in the industrial flooring segment worth 54 million sqms, reports Shruti Jain.

Speaking during the colloquium, Regional Head, Mr. Vikas Seth elaborated on the company's investment strategies and said that the capacity expansion of its industrial tiles at Dewas is being funded through Rs.400 crore capex investment and is a part of their business plan to focus on high-value innovations in the industrial flooring category. "In fact, we will extend our category innovations to offer solutions catering to the specific profile of small & medium enterprises and see a quantum jump in future growth coming from the SME segment," he added.

Listing the company's major clients both in public as well as in private sector, he revealed that in the private sector across India, some of the corporate projects where Johnson Endura Industrial Tiles have been used include Honda, Suzuki, Vodafone, Havmor Icecream, Ruchi Soya, Reliance trends, Pidilite group, Parle industries, Sun Pharma, ITC, Lupin Pharms, Cipla, Siyarams, and so on. Similarly, in the public sector, their list of clients includes Hindalco, Western Railways, NPCIL, MES, MMRDA skywalk, Pollution Control Board, BEML, amongst others.

Addressing the audience, General Manager, Mr. Ravi Aravamuthan, explained that the company is expanding its industrial product line to cater to the prolific requirements of small & medium enterprise segment. He firmly believes that the SME's have great potential to provide an added acceleration to the industrial business and making use of this potential, H&R will deliver best industrial flooring solutions at competitive economics. Being extremely positive for its Dewas unit, he said adding that once the Dewas unit reaches its peak production capacities, it will have the potential to generate over Rs.100-Rs.150 crore revenues per annum. Going ahead he mentioned that the industrial flooring category accounts for about 7 percent of the overall Indian ceramic tile industry and Johnson Endura enjoys market leadership in this segment with over 50% market share.

Johnson Endura
Vikas Seth and Ravi Aravamuthan unveiling the Endura Industrial flooring products for SME

When asked about the company's annual turnover and distribution network, he replied that during the fiscal year 2012, our gross revenues crossed Rs.1729 crores with total sales volume crossing over 46 million square meters. Moreover, our pan India distribution network is one of the largest in the industry and comprises over 33 modern retail stores called House-of-Johnson and Johnson Corners with a well oiled network of 1200 dealers, 15,000 sub-dealers and a large base of retail franchises. In fact, by adding various products categories to its portfolio, HRJ enjoys the reputation of being the only entity in India offering end-to-end solutions of tiles, sanitaryware, bath, and kitchens fittings.