Emami Cement: Building and Strengthening a New India

Aditya Agarwal | Manish Goenka | Founding Partners | Emami

The City of Joy, Kolkata is home to Emami Group of Companies; an Indian Conglomerate that has eleven key businesses with a presence in over sixty-three countries with a turnover of around Rs 20,000 crores and a workforce over 25,000 people. The Group has its presence in diversified sectors such as FMCG, newsprint and packaging boards, edible oil, biodiesel, real estate, hospitals, ballpoint tip, retail pharmacy chain, retail book & leisure store, cement, solar power and contemporary art. The Emami Group has several leading companies under its umbrella and some of them include Emami Limited (Flagship company of the Group); Emami Paper Mills Limited; Emami Agrotech Limited; CRI Limited; Emami Realty Limited and many more.
Founding Partners
Emami Group’s foundation was laid in 1974 when childhood friends, Radhe Shyam Agarwal and Radhe Shyam Goenka, came together to set up a company – Kemco Chemicals, an ayurvedic medicine and cosmetic manufacturing unit. The vision and innovative approach of founders transformed Kemco Chemicals into India’s one of the leading and listed Companies – Emami Limited, which is the flagship company of the Group.   Both the founders are currently the Joint Chairman of the Emami Group of Companies.
Setting foot into the Cement Market
Emami Group forayed into cement business by incorporating a separate company – Emami Cement Limited on June 13, 2007. The company began its journey with an integrated cement plant with a clinker capacity of 1.98 million tonnes per annum (MTPA), and cement capacity of 2.50 MTPA at Risda in Chhattisgarh in 2016. At present, Emami Cement has four cement plants in operation with an installed capacity of 7.1 MTPA. During FY2020, the company’s cement capacity is all set to increase to 9.3 MTPA. Its cement is sold under the brand name – ‘Emami Double Bull Cement’.
During the period of 2008-2019, Emami Cement has invested a total of over Rs 4000 crore for setting up three green-field plants and also for acquiring a grinding unit in Bihar.
Team Cement – Uniting the Best
Headquartered at Kolkata, the cement company’s core team includes Manish Goenka, Whole-time Director & Executive Chairman; Aditya Vardhan Agarwal, Promoter Director; Vivek Chawla, Whole-time Director & CEO; Vinit Kumar Tiwari, Chief Marketing Officer; Rajiv Ranjan Thakur, Chief Financial Officer; Samar Banerjee, Vice President – HR, and Debendra Banthiya, Company Secretary. 
Vivek Chawla, the current CEO, has over 35 years of experience in cement and aluminium industries working across functions including management, operations, sales and marketing, projects and commercial. He joined Emami Cement in August 2016.
Emami Cement launched its cement under the brand ‘Double Bull’, which signifies the promise of strength in its cement. The ‘Emami Double Bull’ brand was launched in the markets of West Bengal, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh. Thus the company is positioning itself to capture a significant market share in East and Central India. At present, Emami Cement has four cement plants in operation, comprising an integrated cement plant at Risda in Chhattisgarh and three grinding units, one each at Panagarh in West Bengal, Bhabua in Bihar, and Jajpur in Odisha.
Products that Speak for themselves
The company markets all its products under the ‘Emami Double Bull’ brand. It has a wide portfolio of products which includes Portland Pozzolana Cement (“PPC”), Portland Slag Cement (“PSC”), 43 and 53 Grade Ordinary Portland Cement (“OPC”) and composite cement. It primarily sells its cement to retail and institutional customers in the states of West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Jharkhand, Bihar, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh and a part of Eastern UP. Premium PSC offering is sold under the brand ‘Emami Double Bull SUBH’ and premium PPC offering is sold under the brand ‘Emami Double Bull MASTER’. It sells its products to institutional customers directly under the ‘PROCEM’ brand.
Emami’s cement’s plants with stand-alone capacities – alphabetically listed

 
Better Technology, Better Products
Emami is committed to delivering the best and consistent quality of cement to its customers.  In its endeavour to do, it has installed state-of-the-art technologies in all its factories and ensured superior quality control procedures at every stage of cement preparation. It has cutting edge technologies from FL Smith of Denmark and GEBR Pfeiffer of Germany.
Automation of Quality Control Lab has been the biggest step towards this. The robotic lab has been installed in its integrated unit for automatic sample collection from the site at a set frequency and testing of every sample with 100% accuracy and real-time correction. It not only helps to monitor the quality but also ensures consistency.
The latest version of testing equipment XRF, XRD, PSD testing machines, pelletizing machines etc has provided in all our plants for the highest level of precision and accuracy in quality checks. A Cross Belt Analyser has been installed on limestone feed belt to prepare uniform quality stockpile for the best quality cement.
Vertical Roller Mills which gives best particle size distribution among all types of grinding mills (like ball mill, tube mill, roller press etc) have been installed for raw meal, coal and cement grinding. This helps in producing best and uniform quality cement at the lowest power consumption. New Generation equipment like 6 Stage Pre-calciner, High Momentum Kiln Burner, Cross-bar cooler have been installed in its plants to produce best quality clinker and cement.
Along with producing the best quality cement, the company also believes in delivering the best serviceability to its customers.  It has an automated logistics system inside its plants, installed GPS in the dedicated fleet of trucks to improve truck TATs and hence ensure a regular and better supply of its cement to the customers.
Internationally acclaimed advanced software like SAP and PULSE have been introduced in its system. This has improved the operations in terms of quality and delivery, ensuring better service to our dealers and customers
Keeping Environment in Mind
Emami is committed to reducing carbon footprint in its cement production process. With its state-of-art processing technologies, it has been able to maximise slag & flyash addition to highest limits set by BIS. This is done without compromising on its superior cement quality standards. It needs specific mention that flyash and slag are disposed from power and steel plants which then would have to be used as landfill if not consumed, thereby polluting environment and eroding the fertile soil.
High-efficiency equipment and upgraded operating processes have been adapted to operate with Industry’s best power and fuel consumption thereby reducing CO2 emission in the manufacturing process. A few of them are;

• Waste Heat Recovery System which can produce12 MW power by recuperating heat from hot flue exit gases of pre-heater and cooler, thus utilising thermal energy which else would have got lost in the environment.
• CFBC boilers in CPP with ~3000 kCal/kWh heat rate with negligible water loss.
• Cross – Bar Clinker cooler with ~ 70% heat recuperation efficiency
• Continuous emission monitoring system at stacks for process and emission control.
• Plan to install alternate fuel storing & firing system to replace ~ 5-10% of fossil fuels with alternative fuels.

Holistic Development
Emami joins Govt of India in its movement to create “New India” by playing a pivotal role in the development of rural and urban life of India. It has participated in different Govt infrastructure developmental schemes (like Smart City Mission, Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, etc) providing a concessional rate for its cement.
Its cement factories are located in rural regions and it considers rural development as its solemn responsibility to co-exist with the communities around the plant. Various skill development programs like sewing and beautician training courses for women, English and personality development classes at nearby Govt. High Schools, etc have been conducted time to time by the organization.
Health camps & awareness program on health, sanitation and road safety for local villagers are conducted periodically. Other developmental activities like village road construction, green belt development, pond deepening, revamping of ailing Govt schools are few major activities done by the organisation. Inside the factories, it is committed to providing a safe work environment for all employees. It targets Zero accidents and is continuously working to develop advanced safety infrastructure and culture inside the plant premises.
Entrepreneurs – Defining the Economy
Vivek Chawla views start-ups as the future of India as they play a significant role in economic growth. They create job opportunities and bring innovative concepts & technology adding incredible value in the overall development of the country. Govt of India’s new Scheme- “Startup India” can effectively minimise a lot of challenges that they have to face. He adds and advises young entrepreneurs to, “Stay positive and embrace each challenge as a learning opportunity. Plan financial model, conduct market research and have an accountant and legal counsel on board. They need to be patient as profit generation generally takes min 2 years to surface.”
Eyeing the Future
Emami Cement has planned to have a national presence in the next five years by setting up cement plants in Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan, where the company has already procured limestone mines. The company aims to be among the top few players in the cement industry. The company is looking at acquiring smaller integrated cement units in Central and East India and proposes to have a manufacturing capacity of 15 to 20 MTPA in the next three to five years.