Finolex ventures into business of managing water

The move has been prompted by the looming water crisis in India, which is home to 18% of the global population but has only 4% of usable water resources. India’s water crisis is accentuated further through distribution losses in the carriage of water.

Finolex said it is planning to create solutions which help prevent such leakage.

As a part of this, the company is planning to increase its capacity of the PVC Pipes and Fittings plants by approx. 40% to 3.2 lakh tonnes through an additional capital expenditure of Rs 90 crore spread over three years.

The plants are spread over Pune, Ratnagiri and Masar near Vadodara. 

The company which clocked a turnover of Rs 2,453 crore in 2013-14 is expecting to grow at a CAGR of 15% to 20% over the next five years, which will see its turnover cross USD 1 billion.

The new push is expected to contribute significantly to this vision. While the PVC Resins business currently accounts for about one third of the turnover, the share of the pipes business is expected to grow year on year. In the process Finolex Industries Ltd is fast transitioning from the B2B business of PVC resin to B2C business of PVC pipes and fittings.

“As an organization we are keen on ensuring that the available water should reach the end user in the most efficient manner. Finolex understands the value of what water can do in the urban and rural context. A pipeline which brings water to a farmer’s field is his lifeline. If this pipeline breaks down, then the farmer stands to lose not only his crop, but his entire livelihood. This is why we have laid a very high emphasis on our product quality. We consider it our primary responsibility to ensure that the pipeline not only brings life into his crop but also brings him prosperity,” said Prakash P. Chhabria, Executive Chairman of Finolex Industries Ltd.