Pidilite Construction Chemicals division has worked towards developing products that have a combined effort of solving both summer and monsoon troubles. Dr. Sanjay Bahadur, Global CEO, Construction Chemicals, Pidilite Industries
What is the role that Pidilite Industries would be playing in the India Infrastructure Growth story specifically where sustainable infrastructure is concerned?
With an increase in awareness levels among general masses, the demand for sustainable architecture is set to increase. Coinciding with the simultaneous bursting of the real estate bubble in many countries, sustainable architecture has gone from being marginalized to emerging as an increasingly vital part of any type of project.
A similar trend is expected to be followed in India as well in the coming years. With buildings moving from conventional approach to energy and water saving structures, our built environments will have less impact on the natural surroundings. The future is headed in the direction where every structure being built adheres to specific sustainability and ‘green’ norms.
Dr.Fixit LEC (Low Energy Consumption) and Dr. Fixit Blue Seal are the two most effective innovations for sustainable construction from the house of Pidilite. These products enhance the lifecycle of the building providing better insulation and reducing heat. This in turn also reduces the overall energy consumption and hence the carbon footprint of the building. Additionally, unlike other conventional raw materials, these products help in reducing the thermal stresses on a structure & eliminate leakages that result in expansion of the steel used in the core of the walls and pillars. Hence, it can safely be said that these products help in keeping the structure strong over a longer period of time.
What is the current size of the Indian construction chemical market and how would you forecast the near future?
Although at a nascent stage, the Indian construction chemicals market has witnessed growth from ` 1,900 crore in 2009 to approximately ` 3,500 crore in 2015. Going forward, we expect the Indian construction chemicals market to grow at around 14-16 per cent per annum for the next five years.
How do you see Pidilite Industries growing in this segment in next 2 – 3 years? What would be the goals for this period and strategies to achieve them?
As an industry, we are still in a nascent stage and growing. As a result, there is enormous potential and more than enough scope for growth for all players.
Our plan of action every year is to make best-in-class products that offer system solutions to consumers. Our vision is to be more consumer-centric, i.e the consumer has to be placed in the highest regard. This means focus not only on products but also services and innovation. At Dr. Fixit we continuously interact with our users, influencers and consumers to gauge their ‘needs and create specific solutions offering the best results. The ‘surface’ wise solution is one such direction.
Also, the help line, SMS connect and Tech Chat are all efforts to interact with the consumer and help him along on his journey of building a home.
One of the largest segments in the construction chemical is Waterproofing itself. What are the various options offered by Pidilite for under construction and maintenance verticals?
At Pidilite, we offer a wide range of applications such as waterproofing, repair solutions for existing structures and tile fixing solutions. Also, we offer a host of other applications like exterior coatings, sealants, concrete admixtures, floorings and grouts to satisfy all construction related problems. There has been a lot of thought processes combined with uninterrupted R&D that have helped us strengthen the overall brand equity of our mother brand Dr. Fixit.
We offer a comprehensive range of waterproofing products that provide surface-wise solutions to satisfy diverse requirements during construction and have over the years managed to establish ourselves as a preferred brand in this category. Our products include Dr.Fixit LW, Leakfree Homes, Dr. Fixit Blueseal, Dr. Fixit Roofseal . Raincoat Cool.
To take waterproofing to the next level as far as high-end projects are concerned, Pidilite has developed an advanced high-end range of waterproofing products and system solutions. It is our belief that these new solutions will contribute significantly as the value proposition is strong. Our new innovative products have been specifically developed to deal with terrace leakage issues.
From the Dr Fixit stable, there are some products that are perfectly suited to the Indian climate and include protective top coats like Newcoat, NewcoatCoool and NewcoatEzee. There are multiple advantages of these new products. The primary one being that they can repair the terrace without breakage, they are less labour intensive and can be easily applied using a brush or roller to form a thick flexible coating to waterproof the terrace for years to come.
We also have Roff to offer consumers a complete range of tile and stone fixing solutions. Our portfolio also includes a wide range of solutions for waterproofing, building repairs, admixtures and sealants. Our truly complete Construction Chemical brand Roff has a number of products that are specifically designed for different substrates and tiles, these include: Roff Non-Skid Adhesive, Roff Glass Tile Adhesive, Roff Ply Master, FevititeVertifix, Roff Rainbow Tile Mate Epoxy and Roff Tile Bonder.
Would you brief us about Dr. Fixit Heatshield and its insulating properties?
As the market leader, Pidilite Construction Chemicals division has worked towards developing products that have a combined effort of solving both summer and monsoon troubles. This led to the introduction of ‘Dr. Fixit Heatshield in the market.
With the rise in temperature during summers, there is a need for a product which helps in reducing internal temperature. A heat-reducing terrace coating that is sure to bring down the temperature by 4-6 degrees C and make your interiors cooler. Dr. Fixit Heatshield has exceptional qualities of saving energy, heat insulation, solar reflectance, UV, IR and Microbial resistance along with being non toxic in nature. It is an ideal product suited for all residential and corporate projects that face extreme climates. It acts as a heat insulator & waterproof coating on building rooftops & exterior walls because it helps in reducing power consumption substantially by reducing the load on air-conditioners & keeping the interiors cool with an additional function of waterproofing. It has the ability to slow down heat transfer remarkably and keep interiors of externally coated surface of a building cooler by transmitting most of the solar heat back into the atmosphere.
What do you see as the growth drivers for the construction chemical industry in India?
The growth of construction chemicals and waterproofing segments are strongly linked to construction and infrastructure industry nationwide. The mammoth $ 1 trillion infrastructure investment during 12th plan period, the government’s ‘Housing for All by 2022’ target and the upcoming 100 Smart Cities project will be the main drivers for the construction chemicals and water proofing industry.
The waterproofing market nationwide is in a growing stage, since the bulk of the construction sites are still stuck with traditional construction techniques but will eventually have to adopt new technologies.
What are the recent technology trends and developments in the construction chemical industry?
We are committed towards creating technologies which are state of the art based on principals of innovation. Our products also aim at being environment friendly. We realize that in today’s age innovation and environment friendly solutions go hand in hand. Through our various products, we stay true to the needs of the environment
As far as development in the construction chemicals industry goes, it has huge growth potential due to the construction and manufacturing boom in India. Many newly developed products offer better performance and results and hence there will be a shift in demand towards products offering better performance.
Availability of skilled manpower is still a major constraint in the industry. How does Pidilite implement its applicator training programs?
Lack of awareness and unskilled manpower is one of the biggest challenges and a major constraint faced by the sector. About 85 per cent of contractors and builders are not aware of the key advantages of using construction chemicals and have limited knowledge on proper applications methods.
Based on our experience, we can safely say that most of the time, it is not product failure but the failure to apply the product properly that results in the outcome not matching consumer expectations. Although knowledge about right accessories is essential, there is also a critical need for training the contractors and masons.
Hence, to resolve the issue of inadequate knowledge and untrained applicators, Pidilite has setup the Dr.Fixit Knowledge Centre at Kochi to demonstrate the correct waterproofing techniques and provide practical training to deal with real life challenges in the construction sector. The response has been very good and we are planning to open more of such centers in other cities too. Pidilite also runs a non-for-profit organization called Dr.Fixit Institute which imparts knowledge about the best construction practices in the Industry to the ACE Community and students of Civil Engineering.
