In a bid to step up exports, Godrej locking Solutions and Systems — a business unit of Godrej & Boyce Manufacturing Company ltd — is looking at entering American markets soon as its next destination hub. At present, Godrej locks has only presence in the Middle East, Africa and Asian regions and the post American business will bring in considerable sales and revenue to the company on global exports. Also, the company expects that the share of domestic exports to sales will increase up to 5 per cent this fiscal from 3 per cent in FY16.
“America is a bigger market for us as far as our locking solution business is concerned. We have seen there is a huge potential in both North and South American markets for which we plan to export our products shortly in order to cater to both the residential as well as corporate sectors there. We hope that our export to such regions will give good business to the company” said Shyam Motwani, Executive Vice-President and Business Head at Godrej and Boyce Manufacturing Company ltd.
Boyce Manufacturing Co has 14 business units and is the holding company of all Godrej Group firms where the locking solutions is the fourth largest business of its kind. The company is, however, expecting to improve both domestic and international market share significantly in next five years due to Government’s policy-driven mechanism on rapid urbanisation, rising income and quality-conscious mindset of the consumers.
“We have already grabbed the markets in the Middle East, Africa and Asia on export front and we hope that entering the American markets will give an adage to our exports internationally. On the other hand, we also expect domestic share of exports to sales will increase up to 4-5 per cent in FY17 from 3 per cent in FY16 due to the Government’s proactive policy mechanism,” said Motwani.
The company offers both the digital and manual locking solutions domestically and globally. When asked about American venture, he said, “Our innovation in digital and manual locking solution system is a continuing process. We will provide both the options to these regions as per their requirements and demand. I think, even today manual locking solutions are still popular options in both residential and corporate sectors there.”
As far as domestic business is concerned, Motwani is also hopeful that domestic sales will increase considerably due to current Government’s policy driven initiatives such as ‘Housing For All’, ‘100 Smart Cities’, implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST) and other related schemes which will help achieve the target to a large extent. “Though we have seen slight decline in our sales due to slump in realty market this fiscal, we are confident that this will grow considerably due to supportive schemes of the Government like ‘Housing for All’, ‘100 Smart Cities’ initiatives and upcoming GST implementation.”
As per 2014 figure, Motwani said, the locks market was estimated to be around Rs 4,000 crore with the organised sector constituting 40 per cent of the industry. The company has over 1,000 channel partners catering to 30,000 retail hardware outlets, starting from tier-1 to tier-4 cities in the country. “We make locks for almost every application and inner door. We are pursuing an aggressive plan till 2020 including increasing capacity and capability,” said Motwani.
Currently the company has a market share with double digit of 35 per cent in the organised locks markets and the company expects it to raise upto by 50 per cent if realty market picks up in the near future. “We have double digit market share of 35 per cent among organised players and we aim to raise its share to 50 per cent if realty markets come back to shape. With the construction industry coming out of recession and mega trend of urbanisation, demand is expected to increase in coming years,” said Motwani.
Godrej’s lock manufacturing units are spread across three plants — in Madkai, Tivim and Kudal in Maharashtra-Goa border. “Goa is the only production hub of all Godrej locks sold within and outside India. While the mother plant, Madkai factory is for manufacturing the other two plants are meant for assembling. Godrej is interested in increasing it lock manufacturing base further subject to availability of land,” said Motwani.