Established in 1979, Shree Cement is among the top three cement manufacturing companies in India in terms of production capacity. Shree is also among the top 100 listed companies in terms of market capitalization. It has earned the recognition of being one of the most efficient and sustainable organizations. It pursues multi-brand portfolio strategy, which consists of Shree Jung Rodhak Cement, Bangur Cement, and Rockstrong Cement. With annual cement manufacturing capacity of 37.90 million tons per annum these brands are enjoying the largest market share in North India market. Also, with total power capacity of 646 MW including 126 MW of Waste Heat Recovery (which is highest in global cement industry excluding China), Shree is active in power generation business. Shree cement has recently acquired Union Cement Company, UAE. This marks SCL’s first step outside India, towards becoming a global entity. UCC is one of the leading cement manufacturers in the UAE, with cement manufacturing capacity of 4.00 MTPA. With this acquisition, the total cement capacity of Shree has increased from 37.9 MTPA to 41.9 MTPA.
SCL’s Influential Leader
The Managing Director, H. M. Bangur, is a Chemical Engineer from IIT, Mumbai. He brings to the Board technical insights, which is driving force of the technical excellence achieved by the Company. He is responsible for overall management of the Company and provides strategic direction for business strategies, growth and expansion of business along-with taking all other policy decisions having significant business and financial implications.
Shri Bangur was the president of Cement Manufacturers’ Association (CMA) from 2007 to 2009. He is Ex-executive member of FICCI. He is President of Rajasthan Foundation, Kolkata Chapter and is serving as a Chairman of “The Bengal” (an NGO actively engaged with Kolkata Police) also. Coming to the awards & achievements, Bangur has achieved various prestigious awards like “Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2016”, “Forbes Leadership Award 2017”, etc.
Providing Customer-Centric Products, Services and Building Vital Relationship
Marketing strategy at Shree is based on a qualitative and quantitative customer segmentation and devising product offering strategy accordingly. Shree has been forerunner in formulating contrarian strategies and keep on adjusting to diverse consumer requirements. Company has adopted multiple brands strategy catering to specific segments of customers in contrast to prevailing practice of single brand which assumed customer behaviour as homogeneous. Such a purposeful approach gives Shree the much required efficiencies, better execution capabilities and more accountability. Shree’s relentless focus on providing customer-centric products and services has made it market leader in north Indian states.
Building win-win relationship is vital at Shree. This can be illustrated with our unique `Hub and Spoke’ model in the Indian Cement Industry which started a trend of sorts. The Company has set up its Grinding Units nearer to the key cement consuming markets with an aim to serve the customers better and faster. This resulted in a win-win situation for both the customers as well the company. The customers benefited by a faster turnaround time, minimal inventory and smaller order size. The company benefitted by faster acceptance of its products and ability to tap larger market share. Further to ensure timely and seamless delivery of the products, its marketing and logistic teams work on minimizing the lead time of product movement from factories to the market.
Waving the flag of Outstanding Achievements
SCL has received various national and international awards throughout its remarkable thirty nine years of journey. The international awards are particularly received in the field of environment & sustainability from Green organization, London, World economic forum etc. While, national awards in the field of environment, sustainability, energy, social upliftment, HR excellence, quality excellence from Indian Chamber of Commerce, BEE, NCCBM, Govt. of Rajasthan, Society of Human Resource Management, FICCI etc. The UK based benchmarking firm, Whitehopleman, has also recognized the SCL as the World’s first 5-Star rated cement company. Further, it has also been awarded ‘India Green Business Leader Award’ by Emergent Venture.
Journey towards Success
Shree’s family culture is the most important contributing factor towards the growth of the company. Globally, organizations are facing challenges in translating their strengths in terms of `Man, Material, and Machine’. Cement players are ramping-up their cement capacities by the way of green-field and brown-field expansions. However, government’s focus on rural housing and infrastructure development is likely to boost the cement demand. It has been extending its cement capacity regularly over the years.
Shree has developed strong Research and Development capability at Beawar and Ras. These R&D centres are recognized by Department of Science and Industrial Research (DSIR), Government of India. SCL R&D Centers have expertise in multiple aspects of cement manufacturing which combines chemistry, geology, environment, mechanical, instrumentation, energy management and building material mechanics.
Shree continuously focuses on improving resource efficiency in clinker and cement production by optimizing energy usage, utilizing waste in production processes and targeting higher alternative fuel & material usage. In the process, we also endeavor to minimize its impacts on climate, water and air. Shree believe that integration of responsible environmental practices into business operations can add value both in terms of the environmental capital and its financial profitability.
At Shree, the team of experts have identified several alternate raw materials such as fly ash, bed ash, synthetic gypsum and lead zinc slag, among others, to replace conventional raw materials. Their efforts resulted in replacement of 23.5 % of conventional materials with alternate materials. Shree is Co-processing hazardous and non- hazardous waste where a significant amount of energy is being recovered.
Shree has also installed Air Cooled Condensers in place of Water Cooled Condensors in all its Power Plants, which involved substantial capital investment and also reduced the water consumption up to 90%.
Shree strive towards minimising the energy consumption and also focus on better energy efficiency. The company is proud to have over achieved its targets for PAT cycle I and received 1,58,257 ESCerts for their Beawar and Ras sites combined.
Managing Director, H. M. Bangur expressed that “SCL believes that just because we can pay; we must not exploit natural resources”. Further, he added –“One of the challenges that we are facing currently is that how we can use alternate energy in an economical way for cement production? We want to change our energy mixture”. The use of renewable energy will not only save direct GHG emissions but also facilitate for a permanent solution to depleting natural resources.
Digitalized System Providing Game-Changing Experiences
SCL believes in Total Prosperity Management. The company has a digitalized system for whole internal and external process to bring transparency, save time and reduce carbon footprint. The entire cradle to gate and gate to source operations such as transportation of cement and other raw material, selling of scraps undergoes computerized e-bidding. This pays to the clients by allowing- saving of time and money, hassle-free paper processing, fair and competitive environment, environment-friendly process.
Customers, these days, expect to be more delighted with an experience rather than the product or service attributes and features, as they get more and more ‘on-time, on-demand’ services and products in this busy world. Thus, the markets today are trying to find a solution to satisfy ever-changing customer preferences. As a business, instead of chasing all, the company focuses more efficiently by concentrating on few top growth opportunities available at a given time. A strong focus on specific customer segments and offering products accordingly has ensured better execution and more accountability, which apparently created a better and bigger impact on the organization.
Marching towards Improving Quality Life
Educating and spreading awareness of the correct methodology of using cement not only benefit the customers in terms of improving the quality and life of the construction; but also helps the company to gain their valuable trust. With this objective, the company has set-up specialized teams of technical experts who visit construction sites to train masons and owners about the right way of using cement.
At Shree, it sees CSR not a something externally imposed but it is internally driven Samaj Seva. The company is what it is because of its integrated model of sustainability, which allows us to undertake the initiatives towards green world and care for community as integral part of its operations. It is very natural that the company want its stakeholders to grow and prosper along with them.
Futuristic Business Approach
From the business point of view, the Shree Cement is looking to create a market share across the country, as it is already has a substantial presence in North India. As only if it is able to create a country-wide presence, it will be able to capitalize on the benefits of the growing economy of India.
SCL ventured into the wind energy and undertook a project of 21 MW Wind Power Plant at district Koppal of Karnataka. The wind power generated would be utilised captively by the company’s cement plant being set up in Karnataka.
Source :-The 10 Most Admired Cement Manufacturing Companies In India
