SRMB Udyog Ltd, with the launch of ‘Rods ‘n’ Bars’ in Kankurgachi area of Kolkata, has entered the business of retail. Rods ‘n’ Bars is a 250 square feet store, which will offer a wide range of high quality construction steel and the advantages of steel testing with universal testing machine (UTM).
The store claims to serve as a unique one-stop-shop for steel purchase as it will offer free home delivery and a complete steel guide.
With an investment of about Rs1.5 crore, the company plans to open 25 such retail outlets in Hoogly, Siliguri, Malda and Howrah regions of West Bengal, while in the next three years, the company is aiming for the store count of 100. Besides West Bengal, on the cards are the markets of Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Bhubaneswar, Agartala and Guwahati.
Ashish Beriwala, director, marketing, SRMB Group, says, “In today’s marketing scenario, an exclusive retail concept has a great future. We thought that it was the time that SRBM gave India a first-of-its-kind steel shop. For us, selling steel is a secondary objective as primary focus is on educating consumers about the product, its testing and usage.”
SRMB Group is an ISO 9001:14001 certified company with a turnover of about Rs 450 crore. It is aiming to touch Rs 1,100 crore turnover mark in the current fiscal. The company has a strong distribution network of 3,000 dealers throughout India and four manufacturing units in West Bengal – two in Durgapur, and one each in Paharpur and Dankuni. One of the Durgapur facilities was recently launched with an investment of Rs 30 crore, and has a capacity to produce 1.5 lakh metric tonnes of steel per annum.
SRMB is also the first company to be the registered conversion agent for Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL), and has recently introduced an innovative product named SRMB AZAR– a corrosion-proof rebars in technical collaboration with Belguim-based Zingametall BVBA.
– Manish Pareek, Kolkata Bureau
