Sk Bangur Group Scripts Retirement Plan For Staff

The city-based S K Bangur group, which recently hived off the cement manufacturing unit of Digvijay Cement to the Aditya Vikram Birla group, has finalised its retirement age as 60 years.

According to sources close to Bangurs, the cut-off will apply to all the members of the management including presidents of the group companies. "The rule has always been there. It was simply not being followed strictly," the sources said.

"It is necessary to enforce the rule not only to infuse fresh blood in the company to compete with the changing environment of the business but also to ensure that the younger generation get a chance to grow within the company," the sources added.

 

Group chairman S K Bangur, however, was not available for comment.

"Once the individual turns 60, it would be taken for granted that he has retired from the next day itself. However, there might be exceptional cases where the management has given a formal extension to the individual months before he has turned 60," the sources added.

Significantly, the S K Bangur group's decision comes close on the heel of a formal announcement made by Kumar Mangalam Birla about 60 years being the official retirement age for his group.

Key executives in companies like Fort Gloster Industries Ltd, West Coast Paper Mills Ltd, Jayshree Chemicals Ltd, Thirumbadi Rubber Company Ltd and Kil Kotagiri Tea & Coffee Est Ltd, who have been associated with the group for more than 40 years, will have to leave the organisation with the enforcement of the new rule.

The move, however, does not appear to have caused much of a flutter within the group. While some of them have taken it in their stride, a few of them are not happy about the change in the group's attitude.

"I have been associated with the company for so long that I am not being able to come to terms with the fact that I will not be a part of the team soon," confessed one of the key executives.