The company’s vision is to build strong global B2C brands with enhanced focus on profitable growth driven through increased e-commerce penetration
Welspun is moving towards a vision to grow in capacity to leverage on the emerging future opportunity. The company is focusing on increasing the annual production capacity of all product segments. The expansion projects of flooring, advanced textile and home textile businesses, which were in different stages of progress in FY21, will get completed in FY22. Capex spend in FY22 to complete these projects is expected to be around Rs 600 crore. The company remains committed in its long-term aspiration of delivering sustainable and profitable volume-led growth, building on strong brand equity and accelerated focus on emerging businesses.
“We have also constituted an ESG Committee to proactively address any material issues that may impact our ability to deliver sustainable growth and enhance enterprise value,” he says. Welspun has adopted a capital-light capacity expansion to address the growing demand. The company’s plants at Vapi and Anjar operated at peak capacity in FY21. With demand continuing to rise, Welspun is expanding capacity through de-bottlenecking and rebalancing at both the plants, which will lead to increased capacity for towels, bed linen, rugs and carpets. The company has earmarked capex of around Rs 225 crore over FY21 and FY22.
Advanced Textiles
Welspun’s Advanced Textiles Division, which manufactures disposable towels and wet wipes out of nonwoven textiles, has forayed into disinfectant wipes and surgical masks. The business offers a diverse range of products using three major technologies – Spunlace, Needlepunch and Thermobond. Each has an in-house downstream conversion unit to manufacture value-added products. In Spunlace the company saw better price realisations and improved operating metrics. The new disinfectant wipes’ line commenced production in February 2021. Welspun expects the expansion of the Spunlace business to begin operations by September 2021. It also expects to achieve a turnover of Rs 600 crore by FY23 from its advanced textiles business.
E-Commerce and Digitisation
Welspun wants to be a digitally-driven organisation by 2025 – Welspun 2.0. The company’s vision is to build strong global B2C brands with enhanced focus on profitable growth driven through increased e-commerce penetration. The vehicle to achieve this growth is Project WAVE (Welspun Achieving Value through E-Commerce). Powered by Accenture, the programme seeks to drive multi-fold profitable growth in 10+ global markets. The company expects e-commerce channels to add to its top-line of over USD 100 million by FY23. Dipali Goenka, CEO and Joint Managing Director, Welspun India, says, “The pandemic saw a shift in the consumption pattern towards online spending and we adapted to this change by introducing Project WAVE to accelerate growth.”
“We have established the Welspun Carrefour blockchain to strengthen our traceability system, introduced a virtual showroom, and revamped our brands WelHome and Christy to make these products and services available to a broader range of customers. We have always believed in the power of digitalisation in transforming business. During the year, we continued to upgrade our systems, tools, processes and people while focusing on digital as the ‘new norm’. Our digital transformation is based on three main principles – enhanced system efficiency, real-time information collection and decreasing human intervention. The aim is to make our system leaner and more agile so as to enhance the user experience, reduce risks and increase stakeholder value,” she adds.
“Our farm-to-shelf model of vertical integration is backed by this digital transformation, which has helped us provide our customers comprehensive solutions for a healthier and sustainable world,” she adds. Rajesh Mandawewala, Managing Director, Welspun India Limited, says, “Our success is driven by our propensity to adapt swiftly to changing times and respond within minimum time to our clients’ demands. This ability has helped us not only withstand the challenges that we faced through the past year but also capitalise on opportunities and leverage our industrial expertise to deliver value to our stakeholders. Adding to this, we emerged as a united organisation that can persevere in the face of adversity and deliver great results, backed by a healthy balance-sheet and prudent management of our working capital.”
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“FY21 turned out to be a milestone year for us as we not only saw broad-based growth but also scored on two fronts – achieved the highest ever annual income that crossed the USD 1 billion mark for the first time and the highest ever home textile sales volume in a year. As we move forward, we are evaluating all our actions through the environmental, social and governance (ESG) lens. These efforts have been validated by the high ESG score accorded to us by one of the leading global rating agencies and bears testimony to the Board of Directors’ commitment to accelerate our sustainability journey.
– B K Goenka, Chairman, Welspun Group
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The pandemic saw a shift in the consumption pattern towards online spending and we adapted to this change by introducing Project WAVE to accelerate growth.
– Dipali Goenka, CEO and Joint Managing Director, Welspun India