R ARIVANANTHAM
CHENNAI, JULY 18
Executive vice-president and business head of Godrej Storage Solutions Vikas Choudaha on Wednesday announced Godrej and Boyce is planning to expand its footprint in Chennai by setting up another manufacturing facility in the outskirts of the city and is likely to invest around Rs 350 crore to Rs 400 crore.
- Godrej & Boyce leads the way in transforming Indian warehouses through technology and automation
- The intralogistics businesses claim close to 30% market share leading the industry
- Tamil Nadu is emerging as a leader in logistics, driven by its status as one of the most industrialized states in India with India’s first Multimodal logistics Park
Speaking with navjeevanexpress.com here on Wednesday, Choudaha said, “The expansion of the company, which is into manufacturing of pallets and shelves, is being planned to augment production capacity in view of growth in the sector for the next two decades. The investment would be in a phased manner. The 27-acre Ambattur plant has a capacity of 90,000 tonnes per annum and it has touched up to 66,000 during peak time.”
“This year we are planning to produce more and the plant is efficient for the next 18 months,” said Choudaha.
He said that the company is looking at a similar size of land parcel for the new plant. “If we have to have a similar capacity plant then the investment would be around Rs 350 crore to Rs 400 crore plus the land,” he said.
“The future of intralogistics in India is not just about automation; it is about creating intelligent, responsive ecosystems in intralogistics space that adapt to the ever-changing demands of commerce across various markets. Automation could vary from simple conveyors systems to cobots to AI/ML driven technologies and companies will increasingly adopt and invest in these systems/ technologies as they realize the advantages of it, including increased efficiencies, productivity, accuracy, and cost savings in long run. Godrej Storage Solutions ensures this through a meticulous process of understanding customers’ current & future warehousing requirement and creating an adaptable solution design integrating relevant technologies. This is possible because of the knowledge depth in warehousing operations across sectors, advancements in the technologies involved, and the ability to synthesize all these effectively which the organization possesses,” he added.
Tamil Nadu is emerging as a leader in logistics, driven by its status as one of the most industrialized states in India with India’s first Multimodal logistics Park.
Targetting a turnover of Rs 500 crore in exports by the financial year 2027-28, he said the company is aiming at the overall growth of Rs 1,600 crore in the next two to three years.
Consumerism is rapidly evolving, leading to the need for innovation in supply chain strategies and practices and, automation technology is the enabler everyone is looking at to deliver challenging milestones. Godrej Storage Solutions, a market leader in storage systems growing at 15% CAGR, whose 50% revenue is from consumer driven industries like Retail/ E-com/ FMCG/ F&B and consumer durables is recognizing this and proactively aligning to these expectations by creating cutting edge solutions for end-to-end warehousing processes starting from receiving goods to dispatch. The business has made significant investments in capacity expansion and capability building to service ever changing and growing needs of its customers. The business has invested in human capital for solutioning and execution, technologies, manufacturing capacity and relevant integrating systems through an ecosystem of partners. The objective is to deliver higher returns for their customers by enhancing operational efficiency/ productivity through superior standards sustainably in future years.
The overall intralogistics businesses of Godrej & Boyce include Material Handling Solutions, Storage Solutions, and intralogistics solutions through a joint venture with Koerber (Godrej Koerber), contributing to 12-14% of the revenue.
The warehousing sector is witnessing a period of significant transformation, driven by exponential growth in manufacturing, e-commerce penetration, consumption and ongoing modernization of logistics infrastructure. By the end of 2024, the contribution of Grade-A ware house space in terms of both overall supply and absorption is projected to exceed 60%. Godrej & Boyce recognizes the potential of automation, technology, smarter storage and material handling to achieve higher productivity levels across organisations. While using technologies to automate intralogistics activities has many advantages, integrating them with existing warehouse / existing workflow need to be taken care. The business pioneers the integration of technology to enable customers to extend beyond efficiency gains and build resilient, sustainable logistics networks that can withstand global disruptions and support India’s ascent as a manufacturing powerhouse.
