As part of its business strategy to grow in the home lifestyle solutions business, H&R Johnson (India), a division of Prism Cement Limited, today announced its formal foray into the Engineered Marble & Quartz business with a new JV manufacturing unit at Rajkot, Gujarat. This unit has been set-up with a cumulative annual production capacity of nearly 9.6 million Square Feet. The company will begin the commercial production of Quartz at this unit by mid-February while the commercial production of Marble is expected to begin by March-end.
The investments made at this JV unit is part of Rs 400 crore capex earmarked by the company for investing in capability building across the business over the next two years. The company expects to roll-out its quartz and marble products within a week of its scheduled commercial production.
Commenting on the company’s new business foray, Mr T J P Rao, SBU Head – Marble & Quartz, H&R Johnson (India) said, “Over the last few years, our customers have made Johnson brand a focal point for their home lifestyle & decor requirements, be it for our tiles, bath-fittings, sanitaryware, kitchen or even laminated wooden flooring products. This immense customer reliance & faith in our brand encouraged us to foray into the fast-growing engineered marble & quartz business with Johnson Cristal. Our joint venture has set-up a new unit in Gujarat. We have also established an exclusive pan-India distribution network for this business. This is one of our company’s major manufacturing units in this State. We set-up our first tile-manufacturing joint venture in Gujarat in 2005.”
The company has made Gujarat its investment destination for its new business forays over the last few years. It currently has three joint ventures in Gujarat. The Marble & Quartz business is expected to be a key growth driver of the company. Once the marble & quartz unit begins running at full capacity utilisation, it can generate an annualised sales turnover of Rs 150 crore. A primary driver of business volumes for H&R Johnson is the domestic upsurge in commercial premises & retail housing projects.
H&R Johnson has branded its Engineered Marble & Quartz business as Johnson Cristal to leverage the brand equity & pull of its flagship brand Johnson. Incidentally, the Marble & Quartz business is the sixth business foray of India’s largest tile manufacturer which started its business diversification process about 10 years ago. In addition to its flagship tile business, the company is now firmly entrenched into the tile adhesives & grouts, sanitaryware, bath-fittings, kitchen & wooden flooring businesses.
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To support its Marble & Quartz business foray, H&R Johnson has established a pan-India distributor network for its Marble & Quartz business. These distributors will be the primary hub for developing and growing the marble & quartz business volumes in their respective regions. The company will also leverage its immense pan-India retail footprint comprising of 54 House of Johnson & Tile Bazar modern retail footprint to market & sell its marble & quartz products.
Inspired by the unprecedented beauty of natural marble, the Johnson Cristal engineered Marble & Quartz product-line bridges the gap between nature and technology by maintaining the look and feel of natural marble while eliminating all the inherent problems that are prevalent in natural products. Produced in large slab formats, the Johnson Cristal products are impervious, non-porous with a homogenous body making them suitable for virtually any interior application ranging from floor to wall to pillar claddings as well as counter-tops, stair treads and risers. And interest melange of beauty & durability, Johnson Cristal portfolio currently comprises of 28 SKUs.
Johnson Cristal product line is competitively valued with Quartz product pricing starting from Rs 400 per SqFt and Marble prices starting from Rs 275 per SqFt.
