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The Indian roofing industry is going through tough times with several unorganised players disregarding quality and trying to drive the market by price. Nevertheless, the organised players are holding the fort strongly by providing superior quality not just in the products but also with applications and installation. Niranjan Mudholkar reports
The Indian roofing industry has gone through a significant transformation post the economic liberalisation reflecting the country’s industrial, commercial and logistics progress.
Equally important is the growth fuelled by the infrastructure development for the railways, the airports, the seaports, the defence forces and even the sports complexes. Although the contribution of segments like housing, hospitality, education and health care has been relatively less, these segments have in some way added to the growth.
Despite this, the roofing industry has its share of dark elements in the form of unorganised players. Many local companies, whose primary concern is making money at the customers’ expense, have been active in this industry for years.
“Such companies take undue advantage of customers’ lack of knowledge,” says Abhijeet P Kale, senior manager, (technical & marketing), Lloyd Insulations (India) Ltd. “They sell products not solutions. They supply the product and then leave the customer to deal with any issues that may arise later,” he adds without naming any company in particular. His grouse is that most of them survive and sometimes even make profit by selling cheap roofing products.
“What hurts most is the attitude of these players for whom after-sales service is non-existent,” Kale says for whom working with the right spirit is equally important. “For instance, it is unfortunate when people ask ‘what’s wrong if a roof spread over one lakh sq m leaks at a place or two?’ Why should the customer suffer for this lackadaisical attitude? Regardless of whether the roofing covers one sq m or one lakh sq m, it should be absolutely leak-proof,” he states.
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Besides the attitude, another key problem is that many local players do not understand applications and installation. This is where organised players score. As Kale says: “It is not enough to supply just any product — it has to be the right one. Again, a company should not stop with the right product. Applications and installation are equally essential. In short, the customer must get a single point responsibility.”
At the root of the problems associated with improper applications and installation is also the scarcity of skilled workforce as well as insufficient penetration and growth of knowledge. “Good installation remains a problem,” says Rahul Chopra, VP, marketing, Everest Industries Ltd.
HK Mehta, VP, marketing, Saxena Marine-Tech (P) Ltd too puts it in the context of the growing threat from the unorganised players. “The market is expanding but there is need for the organised players to constantly move on newer projects. This can be done by offering not just better materials but also advanced technology for installation,” he adds.
Today the industry has grown not just in numbers but also opened up to advancement in technologies. “The markets in India are now at a threshold point of accepting newer products and technologies,” says Hakimuddin Ali, VP, building products & distribution, Tata BlueScope Steel Ltd.
Focus on R&D and innovations is allowing the organised players to create never-before landmarks and amazing structures that could not have been possible earlier.
Though the ongoing recession has affected the roofing industry as well, its impact has not been very strong. “The Indian roofing sector has been growing rapidly and continues to do so. Before the recession hit, the segment where we operate in was doing a million sq m of roofing every month. Currently, it is in the range of 800,000 to one lakh sq m. So there hasn’t been a substantial impact,” says Rajesh Gupta, MD, Multicolor Steel (India) Pvt Ltd. Gupta, whose firm has worked with several corporates adds that corporates are now delaying their buying decisions.
This delay has compelled Multicolor Steel to now focus on projects for government institutions like the railways and the three defence forces. This is indeed a big shift in terms of business policy. There was a time when many companies avoided working with government projects as these were considered to take a lot of time. The shift is certainly a clear influence of the slow down.
Chopra says that although there has been a recessionary trend in the industrial sector, it has not impacted his company’s business to a great extent.
“There has been a marginal slowdown but India’s economy is more stable than the western economies. We are optimistic because the fundamentals of our economy are strong. I am particularly bullish about the agrarian economy which is emerging very strongly. The next big growth, specifically for the house roofing solutions, will come from the rural markets,” he says.
True, the ongoing slowdown has delayed orders as well as payments in few cases but this delay isn’t considered a big problem by the organised players.
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