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ACC has chalked out an action plan including product innovation to strengthen its ready mix concrete business. The 77-year-old company has lined up a series of ready-mix concrete (RMC) products to push sales.
Right from an Italian marble lookalike Imprintcrete to Permecrete, Holcim-owned ACC is betting on the affluent and demanding lifestyle of GenNext to push its environment-friendly products.
If used in open spaces like car park or garden pathway, Permecrete can allow rainwater to seep through for recharging ground water table.
Notwithstanding the product innovation, the company has adopted the sachet model of fast moving consumer goods companies to improve market penetration. Targeting the retail segment, ACC has launched Bucketcrete, which contains 30 kg concrete in a bucket for Rs 250.
The content, enough to layout four square feet, needs to be used within six hours. The self-curing Bucketcrete is made to order and delivered a day in advance at the dealers end.
The use of RMC has long been restricted to big builders as it is traditionally sold in truck loads. Contractors doing small civil repair work have to depend on the manual mix of cement, sand, stone and water by the mason. The company hopes to change the situation with the introduction of Bucketcrete.
Anil K. Banchhor, Chief Executive Officer, ACC Concrete, said a market study to ascertain the pain points of small civil contractors and customers led to the launch of Bucketcrete, which can be transported like any other consumer product. RMC is usually transported in trucks fitted with a rotating drum to avoid it from hardening.
MUNICIPAL CONTRACTS
The fire-resistant Lightcrete, which is 50-75 per cent lighter than normal concrete, can float in water. Besides reducing the structural load, Lightcrete also has sound insulation properties.
In a lighter vein, Banchhor says the monkeys’ job to build the stone bridge in Ramayana would have been much easier, if only ACC had launched Lightcrete then.
ACC plans to team up with municipal contractors to bid for concrete road-laying projects.
The company’s Speedcrete once laid can cure (harden) within 24 hours, enabling smooth flow of traffic. The conventional RMC takes 15-20 days to cure.
Though Holcim is known for its innovative technology, ACC appears to have scored this time around.
Banchhor says that ACC would be happy to export the idea, if Holcim wants to take it global.
> suresh.iyengar@thehindu.co.in
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