Boss Profiles Plans Big Presence  ( November '11,2003, FE)

Chennai-based ceramic manufacturing company Boss Profiles Ltd, which has bagged the Dept of Scientific & Industrial Research award for R&D in the processing industries sector, has big plans for the Indian market.

On the back of large orders like Benetton (500 stores), Olympus (100) stores, Wills Sports Lifestyle (70), Titan stores (30) and Sachin Tendulkar restaurants (42), it expects to make its presence felt both in the Rs 2,000-crore ceramic tile market and carve a new market for itself by conversions from the Rs 4,000 crore stone (granite) market. Completed projects include ISB Hyderabad, Infosys, Coke and Pepsi bottling plants besides Qutab Hotel.

The company, which set up a Rs 62-crore manufacturing unit in Pondicherry in December 2002, is targeting a turnover of Rs 19 crore this fiscal and Rs 30 crore next fiscal. Boss has a portfolio of application-specific brands: Ferrastone floor systems for hotels, airports and showrooms, Chemstone (chemical resistant systems) for the pharma sector and chemical factories, Cornerstone (staircase systems) and Hardstone for load bearing areas.

Says Boss Profiles managing director S Ghosh, one of the three technocrats who has set up the company, ‘‘Our products have properties of being stain and chemical-resistant, flexibility of use, abrasion-resistant, non-porous, which is why they will make inroads into the traditional tile and granite market.’’

The company follows a two-tier distribution system, which is a first in the ceramics industry, with 11 C&F agents and 70 distributors, besides direct supplies in the case of large projects.