Kajaria Tiles Company was started 34 years ago. Today Kajaria is the largest tile manufacturing company in the country. At the same time, it is at number 9 in the whole world.
Today in 'Unicorn Dreams with Kushan Agarwal' we will talk to Chetan Kajaria, Managing Director of Kajaria Tiles. Introduced Kajaria Tiles, the company's journey to reach the pinnacle of success. So let's start...
Kushan- First of all we want to take you back to 1988. How did the idea of tiles business come about 34 years ago?
Chetan Kajaria- We used to live in Kolkata. Mother used to have a lot of problems due to pollution, so we shifted to Delhi. During this, a friend of Papa said that we should do some work related to soil.
At that time we used to export tiles to other Gulf countries including Saudi Arabia. Our customers used to import tiles from Italy and Spain. We got the idea of tiles from these customers. Which we know today as Kajaria Tiles.
Kushan- When did you join the family business of Kajaria Tiles? How did you start?
Chetan Kajaria- I joined this business in 1999. Initially a company was opened, which used to open showrooms of tiles all over the country. In these showrooms, we used to pass on the information about beautiful tiles to the customers through displays. 25 years ago, there was no concept of displaying tiles in big showrooms. We worked to overcome this shortcoming through these showrooms.
What were the biggest challenges you faced in Kushan- Kajaria Tiles? What changes did you bring to the company?
Chetan Kajaria- To be seen, when I joined the company, there was no such big challenge. I started working with my father. They used to find the logical solution of all the problems together.
If seen, the first major change in the company was the opening of display centers. With this, work on acquisition started in 2010 and bought a 51% stake in Soriso, a Gujarat-based tile company.
Kushan- At that time foreign companies were coming to India on one side, on the other hand local competition also increased. So how did Kajaria Tiles maintain their position?
Chetan Kajaria- There were not many foreign players in the tiles industry 20 years ago, but there were definitely big sellers at the local level. There is a city in Gujarat, Morbi, which has more than 600 ceramic plants. We also got help with the introduction of GST. Now everyone has to pay some kind of tax. GST proved to be a game changer for us.
We did a lot of advertising to maintain our position. Build a strong network of channel partners who become our brand ambassadors.
Kushan- Corona came as a problem for most of the industries. How many difficulties did you face?
Chetan Kajaria- Corona epidemic was a big problem for the whole world. Our plants, shops were closed during the lockdown. The staff was falling ill, but vaccination took us all out of this trouble. Business is recovering now. Demand is increasing in the domestic market and we are seeing a strong growth.
Kushan- We read that initially you used to bring vitrified tiles from China and sell them in India. Now export to more than 35 countries? What are the growth factors behind this change?
Chetan Kajaria- Earlier there were not many factories in India. That's why we had to import from China, but after Make in India, new factories were built in the country. After this 100% of our products started being made in domestic factories only. If seen, we may export tiles to many countries, but it is 1% of our revenue.
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