Infrastructure Growth to Boost Flooring Market

In an exclusive interview with Anurag More; Arjun Shahani, MD, Armstrong World Industries (India) suggests infrastructure should be hastening up, as its development will consequentially lead to growth of all other ancillaries sector
How big is the commercial ceiling and flooring market in India? What is your share in the market?As per our estimate the commercial ceiling market is about 35 mn sq metres, which excludes open plenum. Commercial flooring market estimated is in excess of 200 mn sq metres.  Armstrong holds leadership position is mineral fibre market, where our share is almost double of our nearest competitor. In fact Armstrong Ceiling has become a generic name for modular ceiling today.
How has ceiling and flooring technology evolved over the years?As compared to other countries the pace of evolution of technology for the ceilings and floorings in India could have been better. When one goes abroad, he notices modular acoustical ceiling in every space, including restaurants, education and retails chains. However, in India its mainly in modern work space offices, healthcare segment and backend of hospitality segments. We need to educate people of acoustic and modularity aspects, which will only hasten the installation and cut down the overall cost in both CAPEX and OPEX.
How do you see Indian infrastructure sector going ahead?Infrastructure in India is definitely seeing growth. Though, the year 2012 has been in particular a difficult year for the market but it certainly is expanding in a positive direction. The PPP involvement in infrastructure sectors like, railways, metro, highways and airports should be hastened up, as their development will consequentially lead to the growth of all other ancillaries sector.
What is the range of ceiling and flooring products you offer?We operate in both resilient (vinyl-tiles and sheets) and non resilient (laminates and engineered wood) flooring products in India. Besides mineral fibre, we have a large range in metal tiles. Armstrong has recently introduced Architectural Specialty (AS) range, which besides being modular in nature gives the architect huge flexibility with respect to design. Our ideas can now turn in to reality. The AS ranges comprises of tech zone, soundscapes canopies & shapes, infusion panels, and woodworks linear & grille.
What makes you different from other players in the same sector?We are solution oriented company rather than product oriented. Today, we can boast about being the only company which can give complete interiors solution from ceiling to wall to flooring. We have pan India presence with 10 offices and 11 home offices and has 10 warehouses spread across length and breadth of the country. We at any point of time have both ceiling and flooring stocks to serve customer requirement within 2- 3 days time. Our sales team is technically competent to provide solution across different segment and across applications. We have three segment specialist teams, who look after hospitality, healthcare & education. Modern workspace is our core strength.
Any plans to enter residential segment also?Today atleast one bedroom in a newly constructed house has wooden flooring. We work with Developers to specify our flooring. In fact one of the top-end development projects in Gurgaon, near Golf course is using complete solution of Armstrong’s engineered wood.  Besides this, we are creating distribution and multi-branded outlets network to reach out to end home users.
What are the new innovations offered by you?We have come out with innovative architectural specialty range recently. Last year we introduced Techzone, which breaks away from conventional 2×2 steel angle system. Techzone provides a Monolithic, uncluttered ceiling solution, by organising technical services in the 150 mm wide zones. We have done many modern workspace offices with Techzone. Our tag line is “Between us, ideas become reality”
Brief us about your expansion plans in India.In India, we plan to double our turnover every three years. We have successfully done that in the last two and half years. We are moving on that for next coming years. For this we are investing in our sales force and augmenting our warehouses.In 2011, Armstrong’s consolidated net sales totalled approximately $2.9 billion globally, how did the Indian business perform and what is your target for current fiscal?As far Indian business is concerned, we have doubled our revenues in last two and half years and we intend to double our revenue in next three years.
Do you have any manufacturing facility in India?We have a joint venture plant in Talegaon, Pune, where we make grids. Today almost 70 per cent our grids are manufactured in this plant and balance is imported. In the next couple of years, we plan to manufacture 90 per cent of grids from our local plant. We also manufacture metal tiles in India.
Do you offer any kind of products those are suitable for use in green buildings?Most of our products are used in green buildings. Our products are Griha approved.  We are also one of the founding members of the IGBC (Indian Green Building Council). We work very closely with green buildings with our recyclability concept, light reflectance ratios and acoustic solution.

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