The SCJ Group is a known brand in the field of colors and additives. The group manufactures masterbatches, PVC compounds, co-extruded sheets, and telecom cables. With almost 5 decades of foundation, the group claims to have a rich data bank of over 7000 shades in line with the international standards like PANTONE and RAL. In India, the group has manufacturing facilities at Delhi, Baddi (H.P.), Daman, Jammu and Bangalore with offices in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and sales executives spread around the Country. Wire & Cable India recently underwent an exhaustive exchange with Mr. Darpan Jain, Managing Director, SCJ Plastics Ltd. Below are the briefs:
Wire & Cable India: Please state briefly about the evolution of the SCJ group.
Darpan Jain: The Company was started in 1969 as proprietorship by my father Shri Satish Chand Jain. Initially, we started making housing wires. Later on, we shifted to PVC compounds where two major manufacturers viz. NOCIL and Shriram Group were already dominant. Sustaining in that segment was herculean in the face of such formidable companies. Moreover, the shortage of raw material was noticeable in that period. Yet, in a span of ten years, we became the market leaders in PVC master-batches. From 1970 to 1980, we were busy making PVC compounds only for wire and cable industry. To corroborate this, you may find a mention of our name in the book published by Shriram Group.
Our exciting journey continued and in 1980; we ventured into PVC masterbatches and in span of 10 years we created credibility for ourselves in the market. Moving on, we started making polyethylene masterbatches in 1990. We were the second company to make polyethylene masterbatches and the first to make styrene masterbatches. Today, we make almost all different kind of masterbatches. Then, in 2000, we thought of diversifying a little bit more and proceeded further by making High Impact PolyStyrene Sheets (HIPS) and Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) sheets.
Today, we make masterbatches for virtually all polymers and these are not universal masterbatches, but dedicated masterbatches. Even if you club five Indian companies together, they won’t be able to match the range we are offering in SCJ. In the wire and cable segment, which has been our first love, we have grown significantly even if the profit margins were not so high in the segment.
The industry recognizes us for quality and services we provide. Our first focus is to ensure quality and we want to develop some import substitute by providing our customers quality product here in India only.
WCI: Brief us about the product offerings and applications?
DJ: If we start from wire and cable, many people think it is just about different colors. But, application-wise there are different types of wires and Cables e.g. house-wiring, control cable, instrumentation cable, power cable, etc. In power cable also, it is PVC, XLP, and LT- HT.
In the masterbatch segment, there is PVC masterbatch, lead-free master-batch, ROHS masterbatch and REACH compliant masterbatch. There is more stress on environmentally sustainable technology today. Moreover, the field is becoming increasingly competitive because of globalization.
Today, we supply masterbatches to the companies who supply wire harnesses to the car makers like Mercedes Benz, BMW, Audi, Volkswagen, Toyota, etc. These are all world class players who compromise on nothing. We have to match the standards to show them that we are at par with all the big companies of world.
WCI: The inclination towards R & D is not frequently seen in India. What kind of investments have you made as regards to techno-logy and R & D facilities?
DJ: For R & D process, customer’s feedback is important, but we don’t depend entirely on that as it may delay the process. We have built small pilot plants at our manufacturing facilities on which we carry out the required product testing. Our R & D division consists of team of experienced professionals. We hire experts who have retired from the respective industries and use their knowledge and expertise to develop new products. It greatly augments R & D impact on our products. Our human resource policy is a fine balance of youthful energy and old experience.
We regularly upgrade ourselves with better technology. Recently, we bought a lab from BASF (Germany) which is located in Mumbai. We bought the whole laboratory and added more world class equipments in it. Besides, we have injection molding machines and a dispersion analyzer in the lab. Generally, the masterbatch companies don’t have these equipments. With the basic equipments, it’s difficult to venture into R & D. At most, you can have the quality control.
WCI: Are you looking forward to expand your footprints to other markets too?
DJ: Yes, indeed. Right now, all our sales are happening within India and we wish to explore the world. I have made some visits to the Middle East, and Africa recently. I got the impression that the product range we have, even the best company of the world in the wire and cable masterbatches cannot compete. We can exploit this range world over. For that we need to improve the quality as I feel that even though we sell our 100 percent of the produce, it’s not going be the right indicator for the product improvement. We can sell a bit less and infuse more quality in the products.
WCI: Do you find it difficult to convince your customers on the use of quality masterbathches?
DJ: Price is not our selling strength, but quality is. We try to make customers understand the importance of selecting right and quality masterbatches. Our prices are industry standard, so we don’t negotiate on that. Other people may negotiate as they follow our prices. Instead, we try and convince our customers of the virtues of the product and how a less consumable item like masterbatches may affect the quality if they choose the wrong one, even though, a good quality compound is used.
WCI: What are your plans for the next three to five years?
DJ: Among future plans, one is to explore the African and the Middle East market; we see a big scope there with our knowledge, experience and product profile. In addition, our company’s policy is to keep abreast of the market leaders to remain up-to-date because they are the people setting the trend. It is important to know where they are going; which product they are using; what new product is coming. For example, TPU, PBT, Nylon, etc. and other master-batches have started coming in now. We have to keep pace with globalization specially in terms of technology. We are laying lot of importance on this in the future expansion plans.
WCI: What kind of opportunities you see in the wire and cable sector?
DJ: There is immense opportunity in the wire and cable sector. Companies have international collaboration and are not much concerned about the prices of the masterbatches. With our Prime Minister putting emphasis on the cutting of import, we have the opportunity to produce quality masterbatches in India and cater to the industries in need.
WCI: You are also into some kind of communication cables too?
DJ: Yes, we took over Himalayan Communications 5 years back and we make Jelly Filled Cables, Optical Fiber cables and cables for railways.
WCI: Tell us exactly about this company.
DJ: We acquired this company five years back. We are manufacturing cables there. All state-of-the-art facilities and the optical fiber plant are from Switzerland. We have a team of technical people there. Whatever new generation masterbatches like PBT, Nylon and others we produce, we send them to this technical team for conducting trials. We do in-house trials.
WCI: What was the purpose behind this acquisition?
DJ: Initially, the acquisition was meant to serve the diversification needs. However, now with our Prime Minister emphasizing on increased telephonic and internet connectivity through length and breadth of the country, we see more opportunity coming in. We are a expecting a big boom in the telecommunication cable manufacturing sector for next ten years. Railways are another avenue where we see our scope.
WCI: Tell us about the company’s core philosophy?
DJ: Before philosophy comes my father’s contribution who worked incessantly to make the company what it is today. As far as philosophy is concerned, our company believes in satisfying the customers fully and establishing camaraderie with fellow suppliers at the same time. That’s the synergy and bonhomie with all other suppliers in the industry which have made us a zero bad debt company. It’s not always the sale which matters; sale is coming at what cost is important according to my father. I proceed with the same philosophy.
