 "B K Birla & Manjushree Khaitan")
B K Birla-led Kesoram Industries is set for a brand makeover. It has appointed Grey, Singapore, to build on the umbrella brand of Kesoram and also provide thrust for branding of its key businesses—tyre and cement.
This is being termed, by the management, as one of the major initiatives being undertaken by the newly appointed vice chairperson, Manjushree Khaitan.
The move comes at a time when the company is looking to increase its presence in the domestic market and boost its tyre exports business. Twenty% of the tyre business revenue comes from exports, said company CEO (business operations) Arvind Singh.
“We are looking at brand building on a holistic basis and not only for overseas business, which means the brand will need to create the connect in the market we are operating in. Typical advertising might not have any meaning at times, so you need to create the correct sort of brand,” Singh said during an interaction with reporters after the annual general meeting of the company here on Wednesday.
Khaitan said that the mandate had been given to Grey for about a year now and the report by the consultant could be tabled any moment.
“The umbrella brand will be Kesoram and also the particular business lines will develop the required identity as we thought there is a need to create the brand to gain more market,” added Singh. According to him, this exercise will provide a lot of synergistic advantages to the company on a branding level.
Meanwhile the company is planning to set up a 1.5 million tonne (mt) cement clinker facility in Solapur, which would see an investment of around Rs 310 crore. “This is part of phase I and based on the results of phase I there is a possibility to add another 1.5 mt capacity in phase II. We already invested Rs 60 crore for the land in FY13 and phase I should be complete in another 20 months from now,” said the chief executive officer. According to Kesoram CFO T K Das the total investment for the project would be about Rs 500 crore.
Currently, the company's total capacity is 7.2 mt per annum and capacity utilisation stands at around 70%.
On the other hand, the passenger car radial tyre unit in Balasore, which was in limbo owing to poor market conditions is on the verge of revival. “We are actively looking at it for completion which should happen in the next 12 months. Another Rs200 crore will be invested there,” said Singh.
During the interaction, the management indicated that it was looking to boost its exports and was evaluating to enter new geographies like Latin America and Europe. “Currently exports contribute about Rs 600 crore a year. We are aiming to clock the Rs 1000 crore mark by FY15,” claimed Singh.
