<p>A V Dharmakrishnan has been appointed the chief executive officer (CEO) of Madras Cements Ltd, one of the leading cement manufacturers in Tamil Nadu. This tech-savvy chartered accountant, who has been with the company for 30 years, intends to add eight million tonnes of manufacturing capacity to the company with an investment of around Rs 3,000 crore.
Madras Cements is the flagship company of Chennai-based Ramco Group. The company has a market share of 12 per cent in South India and is ranked ninth in the country with a capacity of 12 million tonnes.
“While my immediate goal is to increase the capacity utilisation to 90-95 per cent, my long-term vision is to add another eight million tonnes over the next four to five years with an investment of around Rs 3,000 crore,” said Dharmakrishnan. He has held various positions in the company and his last assignment was as executive director – finance, before assuming the CEO's post. One of his major accomplishments at the firm is the installation of technology that allows him to monitor in real time, everything from sales of his products in retail stores to productivity in manufacturing facilities.
Today, Dharmakrishnan says that his main challenges are logistics and brand-building.
“We focussed enough on manufacturing and costs, now the challenge is logistics management, brand-building and marketing,” said Dharmakrishnan, who likes to spend his free time at Ramakrishna Mutt, immersed in meditation.
The southern market in which the company operates reported a negative growth of around 3.03 per cent in the first nine months of the current fiscal but has shown some signs of recovery in the last quarter by reporting 8.98 per cent growth.
During the current fiscal, the company expects to grow by 20 per cent. In the nine months ended December 31, 2011, the firm reported a total income of Rs 2,337.97 crore as against Rs 1,933.4 crore, a year ago—an increase of around 20 per cent. The company's net profit rose to Rs 286.02 crore from Rs 147.20 crore during the same period.
