In an interaction with Keshav Bhajanka Executive Director Century Plyboards

"We are attempting to differentiate ourselves from the competition" 

"We are attempting to differentiate ourselves from the competition"


In Q4FY23, the company achieved best ever quarterly sales, EBITDA and PAT in absolute terms. What were the contributing factors to the tremendous performance? 
 

After all the initiatives that we have put in place in the cloud division for the last three to four years, you have seen sustained groups. And the reason behind this is manyfold. It could be virokill, it could be attributed to the firewall, could be attributed to the huge ATL campaign we have done. Also, it could be attributed to the change in the go-to market, whereby we are focusing a lot more on reaching out to the end customer. 

Coupled with this, we are now growing in our MDF segment. We are expanded our capacity and we are going into the laminate segment as well where we are expanding our capacity. So I'm very bullish on growth for the company overall going forward.
 

What is the current competitive landscape for your company, and what are your plans for enhancing your competitive position?
 

I think you know the plan is the same as what it has always been. We are going to invest towards getting the best possible product and service to our customers.
 

So through innovation to adding product features through enhancing our service and our after-sales service to the customer, we are attempting to differentiate ourselves from the competition and I think we have been reasonably successful in doing this as of now and going forward we will introduce many new categories. 

And that new category is going to be something that will revolutionise the laminate industry.
 

What were the factors which led to the disappointing performance of the laminate division and what is your outlook for the laminate division for the next few quarters?
 

We were working on a lot of the distance for the laminate division, which per se hasn't panned out and in laminate you know there are a lot of initiatives that were in progress. We were supposed to launch our Sainik range in the current quarter and there was a lot of focus that has shifted to future planning. So I think it was a one-off quarter that was disappointing.
 

Now from next quarter onwards, we are very bullish on Sainik Laminates with the new catalogue having been launched and by the end of this year, we should have our larger size capacities coming into play. So the laminate as a category is going to grow very well in the current scenario.
 

"We are very bullish on Sainik Laminates with the new catalogue having been launched, and by the year-end, we should have larger size capacities coming into play." 

What are the company's plans regarding the launch of new products? 
 

Yes, definitely. We are working hard on quite a few categories at this point. There are new ranges that are being planned across all our categories. There is category extension and additions in the laminate vertical and then new product introductions that will take place in the MDF space as well.
 

At the moment, what are your top 3 strategic priorities?
 

At this point for the company as a whole, I think the first strategic priority is ensuring that the go-to-market that we have invested in substantially over the past three to four years is for me to establish and it helps us gain attraction from the market. It's a very, very difficult thing to change the mindset of a team, but we have been able to somewhat successfully implement this change and going forward we are going to be looking to further strengthen the same.
 

The second is going to be a focus towards getting the new capacities in Andhra Pradesh, both in MDF and plywood in laminates operational as soon as possible. Lastly, we are now proving our financial software, our ERP. We are now upgrading SAP in the company and as you know it's a very difficult proposition. So to implement this is another priority in the short term.