- Lakshay Jindal, Director and CMO, Jindal Bricks With the third generation working in the brickmaking business, Jindal Bricks has always focused upon customer satisfaction as the key to business success. Lakshay Jindal, Director and CMO, Jindal Bricks, shares more on the company’s plans in the near future, current trends and growth prospects. Congratulations on receiving an E3 certification for Jindal Bricks! We hear you plan to set up a new experience store in Bengaluru. Thank you very much! As a brick manufacturer, it gives me immense pride in holding the E3 Certificate. We at Jindal Bricks want to create an even higher benchmark for bricks and related products. The experience store in Bengaluru has been in the pipeline since pre-COVID. The store will be operational in the first quarter of the next financial year. The entire team is excited to interact with architects and designers in southern India and cater to its demands. Tell us about the product range that will be showcased in the new store. We want to begin with only four categories of products: Face bricks (extruded and press); brick cladding tiles in all five colours and textures; pavers (all varieties); and roof tiles (50 mm and 80 mm). A total of over 70 products will be showcased in the Bengaluru store and other products from Jindal Bricks will also be available on order. How will the store help professionals source the right product? Earlier, we were only catering to large quantity orders, which we would get through references in southern India. With the launch of the experience store in Bengaluru, we will enable builders, hoteliers, designers and the like to get an enhanced look and feel of the products. We will also cater to sampling requests from customers and dispatch smaller quantity orders for retail customers. How can the company play a major role in achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)? Being a developing country, India needs a lot of infrastructure and buildings to cater to mass urbanisation. Knowing this, along with the fact that climate change is accelerating, we cannot be using non-energy-efficient building materials any longer. By some estimates, in the next 20 years, the amount of interior building space built in India will be twice as much as it has been until now. Therefore, we urge real-estate developers and EPC companies to use only E3 certified building materials. The SDGs India has set for itself can only be achieved by a joint effort between all stakeholders. Tell us about the current trends in bricks and the product range you plan to launch this year. Currently, exposed brickwork in the façade of the building has picked up. It can be seen on the facades of large bungalows, hotels, commercial buildings and even builder floors. People want to use bricks and related products wherever there is greenery. We have supplied products to customers building open sit-outs, patios, rooftop gardens, garden walkways, verandas, backyard swimming pools, and more. These products are mostly popular because of their natural and everlasting look. We plan to launch two new clay-related products this year; both have applications in indoor and outdoor flooring. In addition, there are a few other products in the R&D stage right now. What are the company’s growth prospects and targets for this fiscal year? We have seen a tremendous surge in demand after the first wave of COVID-19. And with the real-estate sector picking up steam, we are hoping for several new project launches. And I am positive about the growth this year as well. We have partnered with many architects and consultants to build a range of innovative and sustainable buildings. We are also in the process of empanelling many new distributors for our products throughout the country to cater to the requirements of retail customers.