Kajaria Ceramics records another growth year

The Indian group expects a further 12-13% sales growth in volumes in the fiscal year 2020.

Kajaria Ceramics, India’s top tile manufacturer and one of the largest global groups in the sector, closed the fiscal year to 31 March 2019 with 9% growth in revenue to 378.7 million euros (29.5 billion rupees), following the previous year’s 6% upturn. It also posted double-digit growth in sales volumes, up by 12% from 72 million sq.m to more than 80 million sq.m. (65.6 million sq.m from its own plants and 14.7 million sq.m produced through outsourcing).

This contrasted with the lacklustre overall performance of the construction industry and ceramic sector in India.

“The dampened consumer sentiments in the real estate sector coupled with piling projects and low credit availability with the builders posed a challenging FY2019 for the building material sector, which in turn impacted the Indian ceramic sector”, told us the group’s chairman Ashok Kajaria.

In September Kajaria Ceramics commissioned a new plant in Andhra Pradesh with a capacity of 5 million sq.m of glazed vitrified tiles, and expects a further 12-13% sales growth in volumes in the fiscal year 2020.

Read the complete interview published in Ceramic World Review 133/2019