Century Plyboards, one of the leading plywood manufacturers in India and a growing mid-cap company in the bourses, is expanding its global footprint in an attempt to become an Indian multinational. The plywood maker has set a target of $50 million turnover from its overseas operations in the next two years. Currently, the company has a turnover of close to US$ 235 million.
Sajjan Bhajanka, chairman of Century Ply, stated to India Times that it is expecting $35 million turnover from its Singapore subsidiary and another $15 million would come from its Myanmar operations. Century Myanmar is a wholly owned subsidiary of Century Ply while the company has 51% stake in Century Singapore. Bhajanka said that the remaining 49% of Century Singapore is with a company called Viet Dutch, promoted by an NRI. "We shall cater to Laos, Vietnam and Indonesia through this Singapore firm. We are entering all these markets where Ajay Bhagat, an NRI, will be our partner," he added.
Bhajanka pointed out that Century would initially invest $5 million for entering into these markets. "We shall use these companies to source raw materials for our Indian and global operations. This will help reduce cost," he added.
According to the Century Ply chairman, the group is also firming up plans to set up a plywood factory in Laos. The investment in the project would be over $12 million. The group already has an overseas facility in Myanmar. "We have a big factory in Myanmar. This is the second highest exporting unit in that country," he added.
Elaborating on the Indian operations, Bhajanka said it is setting up a medium density fibreboard (MDF) plant in Punjab with an investment of over US$ 66 million. "This plant will be ready by mid-2017. We are also setting up a particle board unit near Chennai with an investment of Rs 60 crore. It will be ready in the next few months," he added.
Besides MDF and particleboard, Century is entering into new product lines like wood cement and wood plastic. "As far as wood cement is concerned, we shall initially import it from China and Thailand but we will take a call on manufacturing facility by next year," he added.
