Ravin Group : Transforming growth with innovative approach

Mr. Vijay Karia – CMD, Ravin Group of Companies

Q. We have been seeing a New Corporate Logo of Ravin Group in the media. What is the thought process behind the new logo?
The Group was established by my father Mr. Pramod Karia in the year 1950 as Ravin Trading Company. From that time, the name Ravin has been synonymous with high quality and service. The logo itself is not new and is actually a modified old logo which we have revived. The colours in the logo stand for the three core values of our Group, i.e. safety , dependability and sustainability.
Our strong imbibed core values of Safety, Dependability and Sustainability comes across as our strength and the basis of our growth and development across the decades of our operation. We believe that our products should be safe, dependable and sustainable.

SAFETY

• Our products always adhere to international safety standards and SAFETY first to the users, the public in general, our employees and the environment is our priority.
• Safety coincides with production and quality and is an integral part of our business.
• A series of pioneering safety innovations has made Ravin a leader in safety over the past few years.

DEPENDABILITY

• We realise the importance of customer satisfaction which results in unmatched DEPENDABILITY.
• Dependability is living up to our word and fulfilling our promises.
• Dependability is supplying product which do not fail.
• Our customers, employees, and communities deserve our respect, honesty, and expert abilities.
• When a project is completed, our goal is to be remembered as a trusted partner that delivered the promised results.

SUSTAINABILITY
SUSTAINABILITY for us is an approach that integrates people, planet and profit, resulting in a greener and safer tomorrow. Sustainability involves our ongoing commitment to communities, stakeholders, the environment, health and safety and the economic performance of our business. Our aim is to promote a responsible culture and implement robust corporate systems to consistently meet our sustainability goals. We understand that best practice in these areas will help us to be a leading, international, diversified, upstream, products company. That is why we are working towards integrating sustainability practices across all our operations and business activities so they can grow in the same manner and pace.

Q. Could you shed some light on the new business segments that Ravin has ventured in the last few years?
What is the growth that you are targeting and the opportunities that you are looking at in these segments?
Ravin Group now operates into five clear verticals – (1) Manufacturing of Energy Cables up to 220 KV (2) EHV installations, projects and services (3) Solar energy EPC projects, with emphasis on Tracker systems (4) Specialised power products like Moisture Removal systems for Transformers (5) Retail Energy products. We are targeting a CAGR of more than 25% over the next 5 years into all these areas, and we are confident of achieving the same.

Q. Now that the new government is in place, what changes do you expect in the Electrical segment and how do you see the entire sector and industry performing?
The electrical industry has been grossly underperforming over the past few years and the infrastructure segment is highly stressed due to the lack of policies and lack of decisions at all levels of the government. In fact in the last few years we have seen a negative growth in most segments of the electrical industry due to policy paralysis which is fatal for a growing country like India. This has been further hampered by the fact that no strong personality who knows the sector has been made the Minister of the power sector. With due respect I can say that the last good Minister that we had in the power sector was Mr. Suresh Prabhu who came and made positive and sweeping changes in the sector and brought in the Electricity Act. We require such dynamic people at the helm of affairs.Currently,there are a lot of media reports on various ministries being merged for better efficiencies. If that happens, we can expect this sector to take off in a very short span of time and we would see a growth impetus which has so far been missing.

Shri Pramod Karia, Chairman, Ravin Group (from left) with Shri Narendra Modi at his office

Q. There are 8 ministries involved in the energy sector. State governments also have their own set of ministries. Has the time come to have one centralised ministry for energy and would such a move help in improving efficiencies?
It has been one of the woes of the power sector that there are various ministries involved in the energy sector and that power is both a federal as well as a state subject and this perhaps is leading to breakdown in efficiencies as well as a slow down in the decision making process. Across the country we have about 59 different utilities, each with their own set of specifications. I for one would strongly advocate that the time has come to demolish ministries at state levels and just go with a central ministry, with implementation at state levels , and not the decision making. Similarly the regulatory commissions should not be at state level but at a centralised level and experienced people who know the subjects i.e technocrats and not politicians should be at the helm of affairs. Admittedly this would be a bold step to take but if we are to make this sector grow exponentially, we would have to use bold steps and methods to achieve results.

Q. Ravin is highly active in the Renewable Energy segment; could you tell us more about your interest in renewable energy and the strategic thinking behind entering this segment?
Ravin Group has always been keen to enter into areas of technology and we believe that renewable energy segment holds a huge potential in the country. The renewable energy segment however, like most other segments in India which get very easily and quickly saturated, has also reached the position where the segment has actually become commoditised. People have to realise that generation of renewable energy just does not mean installation of solar panels, inverters and batteries, but it calls for a high degree of engineering skill, which we are capable of providing. Other than focusing on fixed solar installations, we decided to go in for tracker systems, which basically mean that the solar panels are installed on a single axis or on a dual axis tracker, which moves during the day with the sun, like the sunflower moves towards the Sun. So also this tracker system moves the panels so as to get maximum energy from Sunlight, and this means an addition of almost 35% increase in generation capacity, at a nominal 10-15% increased CAPEX cost. Thus your ROI is much faster and the dependence on fossil fuel reduces by a large extent. The best thing is that these systems can be retrofitted onto the existing installations. Hence we felt that this was a segment in which we will need to invest more of technology and we have done so.

Q. The solar energy segment is highly saturated with similar products offering from different companies today.What are the innovative products that you have launched in the solar sector? What are their unique features?
As stated above, the solar energy segment is saturated with similar products but all these are fixed installation products and we have moved with tracker systems. The uniqueness of the tracker system is that it tracks the Sun and in a vast country like India especially on rooftops installation of this tracker system can be a big boon and boost to the Solar segment, as it does not occupy roof space as well as increases the output tremendously.

Q. The current focus is to make renewable energy systems affordable. Should the emphasis not be to make it more accessible to the common man?
I entirely agree that the current emphasis on cost reductions is actually choking the industry and is making the sector very unattractive for the people because of various reasons like low ROI, lack of finance and support from the banks, continuous change in policies and differential policies across different states, R&D has stagnated in this sector, no new manufacturing facilities are coming in and all this leads to a situation where an industry turns sick in the guise of making it affordable. Competition has to be healthy and at the same time competition has also to promote growth of all segments of industry i.e. increase in technical capabilities through improvement in efficiencies and output , thereby reducing costs and not just reduction in per unit tariffs without reduction in costs. At the current moment reduction in tariffs is only leading to a diminishing ROI which results in lack of R&D and curtailment of any kind of incentives towards growth.

Q. What made you foray into this highly competitive segment of retail energy solutions? What strategy are you adopting to market these products?
The retail energy segment is something which is an unexplored segment. It is not a highly competitive segment in terms of products or in terms of technologies but it is highly price competitive, because cheap products are being imported into the country and it is very easy to steal on such products so the consumer is forced to buy these products as he does not have any other branded products available in market. We intend to cater to such a market where people will be quality conscious and will be able to discern quality products across non quality and unsafe products. We are employing multiple strategies in marketing these products, as well as are adapting multiple outlets, with a clear ideology to have these products reach our segment of the market and help people use these products on a repeated basis.

Q. What is the feedback that you are getting for solar retail products from the consumers?
These retails products, which also consist of solar products have been doing extremely well in the market and the feedback that we are getting from consumers is that they were not aware of these products earlier and now that these products are available, they are keen to buy such products and are looking to go high end rather than just going in for cheaper products. We are very happy with the feedback and with the kind of pull that we are getting from the market.

Q. Please tell us more about Ravin’s solar lighting solutions for rural areas? What are its key features?
We have developed lanterns with solar panels which are of course a boon for the rural areas but can be used for all places including urban areas. The features of these lanterns are that it has an adjustable dimmer, and it has LED’s, which are guaranteed for a life of 1 lakh hours. Hence the lantern can run for more than 36 hours in one charge, with the lowest setting, and can run for more than 12 hours at the highest brightness. The unique feature about this lantern is that apart from the light, it contains a USB port which can be used for charging the mobile phone. Hence a person with lantern is not only able to light up his house or his place of business, but is also able to charge his mobile phone from the same lantern, and hence is free from any electricity needs for communication purposes also. This is also a big hit with various vendors and people with handcarts, who find it a problem to charge their mobile phones for the full day.

Q. As a CMD of the company, how do you define success for yourself and your company ? Where do you see the group 3 to 5 years from now?
As the CMD of the company, I hold myself responsible for the performance of each and every member of the organisation, and success for me personally is to have a happy, enthusiastic and empowered set of colleagues working in the company, and we want to see ourselves as a preferred employer .Success for the company is not only to be a preferred employer but to be a debt free company in the next few years time, and we look to work towards that area. Three to five years from now we see our Group spread across the globe, employing various technologies in the energy segment, which would be the hallmark classification of a truly diversified power products company. We see ourselves as an efficient workforce who is truly interested in the work that they are doing, and their enthusiasm will be infectious so that even the customer feels happy in working with us.