Indo Gulf Fertilisers Limited
Description : Indo Gulf Fertilisers Limited, an Aditya Birla Group company, is among the largest and most cost-efficient private sector fertiliser companies in India. Strategically located at Jagdishpur, near Lucknow, in the heart of the fertile, agriculture intensive Indo-Gangetic plain in Uttar Pradesh, Indo Gulf manufactures and markets urea, a nitrogenous fertiliser. In operation since 1998, the capacity of this urea plant stands at 864, 600 tonnes per annum (tpa).
The Company enjoys a leadership position in the nitrogenous fertiliser sector supported by a strong distribution and customer service network. In February 2004 its Shaktiman urea brand was relaunched as Birla Shaktiman in order to leverage the Group's strength. Its marketing areas include Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal, which together account for over 40 per cent of the total urea consumption in India.
Major brand building initiatives include the Extension Education Service and Customer Relationship Management Plan. These aim at developing an emotional bond between consumers and the brand by continuously demonstrating to farmers the real economic value generated by adopting improved soil test based farming practices that are disseminated by the Company's marketing, soil testing and agronomy team.
Indo Gulf Fertilisers has developed robust TQM practices to meet the challenges of increasing competition. The quality improvement programmes are management led and customer oriented. Greater emphasis is given on waste and error reduction to improve the quality of product and services at minimum cost.
Indo Gulf's 'service-centric' marketing strategy focuses on providing complete agri-solutions to the farmers and service support to the channel partners. The Shaktiman Krishi Sewa Kendras, a multi-input retail counters chain forms the fulcrum for conducting these activities. Enrolling farmers as members of the Shaktiman Farmers' Club, to be trained as change agents / brand ambassadors for further knowledge dissemination and engaging women through self-help groups to be trained to open retail counters, are some more unique and highly successful initiatives.
The company's work amidst farmers - who are its ultimate customers, has made a lasting impact. These efforts are reflected in the pre-eminent position enjoyed by its Birla Shaktiman brand, a trusted nutrient that enables superior farm productivity. Birla Shaktiman's success has been further validated by the 'Brand and Communication Study' carried out by TNS Mode in November 2002, where Birla Shaktiman was once again rated as the "Most Preferred Brand" of the farmers and the "Most Frequently Selling Brand" when benchmarked against competitors. Given its strong emotional equity with the farmers, it appears well-positioned for the future.
The move to demerge the fertiliser business of erstwhile Indo Gulf Corporation Limited into an independent entity and amalgamate the remaining copper business with Hindalco Industries Ltd was a major strategic initiative, aimed at enhancing shareholder value. As a result of the exercise, Indo Gulf has emerged fully focused on fertilisers, commanding strong brand equity and a leadership position in the fertiliser industry. The Company recorded a turnover of Rs. 678.35 crore for FY 2005. The company produced 9.85 Lakh MT of Urea, reflecting a capacity utilization of 113 per cent, and higher on-stream days operation.
The Company addresses its societal responsibilities and provides support to the communities as a good corporate citizen. The Company is a signatory of the UN Global Compact based on Ten Principles related to Human Rights, Child Labour, Environment and Anti Corruption. |
