SECTOR: Cement JK Cement JK Cement Ltd is one of India’s leading manufacturers of grey cement and the third largest white cement manufacturer in the world. JK Cement’s operations commenced with commercial production at its flagship grey cement unit at Nimbahera, Rajasthan, in 1975. The company has an installed grey cement capacity of 14.7 million tonne per annum (mtpa) as on date, making it one of the top cement manufacturers in the country. JK Cement is the No. 1 manufacturer of wall putty in the world and the third largest manufacturer of white cement globally, with a total white cement capacity of 1.20 mtpa and wall putty capacity of 1.2 mtpa. JK White Cement is sold across 43 countries around the globe and the company has a strong international presence with two subsidiaries, JK Cement Works Fujairah FZC and JK White Cement (Africa) Ltd. Dr Raghavpat Singhania, Managing Director, JK Cement Ltd, shares more…. Strategies to overcome COVID-19 and other challenges in FY2020-21: Over the years, we have worked consistently to strengthen the fundamentals of our business with a special focus on distribution, supply chain and after-sales support. Therefore, a year that could have potentially gone badly for us was salvaged on the back of this very sound foundation. Initially, as the government announced lockdown, there was a lot of uncertainty regarding the overall demand scenario of the cement industry, owing to which we received setbacks in Q1 in both our grey and white cement businesses. But with the easing of the lockdown, construction activities started picking up pace and we witnessed faster recovery in rural areas compared to urban areas. A proactive approach and focus on rural markets enabled us to deliver a stellar performance in the last fiscal. Apart from this, our differentiated marketing and brand communication, technical services and improved serviceability helped us gain a competitive edge. We have certainly become stronger in our strategic markets by expanding our network of grey and white cement businesses and achieving a higher share of wallet from the existing network base. To curb the spread of the virus, we carried out COVID awareness drives across our plants, created sanitisation tunnels, provided PPE kits to staff and workers, and undertook extensive thermal scanning and vehicle sanitisation. We also made necessary arrangements to house workers in our plants so that operations could continue unobstructed. We achieved growth while taking care of employees as their safety and wellbeing is our No.1 priority. Our channel-friendly policies, employee support and transparent business practices have helped us cope through the pandemic and emerge as one of the fastest growing cement companies. Decision avoided/made that helped maintain top-line and bottom-line: During the pandemic, we adopted a proactive approach and focused our efforts mainly on rural marketing. We rolled out an aggressive rural drive to cover white spaces and untapped markets, which gave us impetus in gaining incremental volumes. Plans for growth in FY2021-22 and beyond: We expect demand in the coming year to be bullish. And with our recent investments in capacity augmentation, we are poised to meet the growing demand head on. I believe we are on the right path and striving towards the growth vision of the organisation. We have taken many initiatives to strengthen our business operations and we always believe in upgrading ourselves to be future-ready.