In an interaction with Mahesh Chandra Garg, Chairman and Managing Director, Goodluck India Ltd

Along with our thrust on export, our continuous endeavour on higher capacity utilisation has resulted in a reduction of financial cost and better profitability, expresses Mahesh Chandra Garg, Chairman and Managing Director, Goodluck India Ltd

From Q4FY21 to Q3FY22, Goodluck India has furnished consistent high growth in its financial performance. What factors are responsible for your stellar outperformance?  

One of the factors behind our stellar performance is our focus on export. It has immensely contributed to our growth. We have been in the export sector since 1992 and are a three-star export house. Goodluck India exports to more than 100 countries across the globe and currently, our major destinations are US, EU & Australia, among others. Our contribution to the export segment is widely acknowledged and as a result, the company has bagged FIEO Awards for the last ten years on a continuous basis. Along with our thrust on export, our continuous endeavour on higher capacity utilisation has resulted in a reduction of financial cost and better profitability.  

Can you share an overview of the company’s overall order book and execution?    

Our company is present in various verticals, offering a wide range of engineered steel products & structures, galvanised iron, cold-rolled coils, and auto tubes, among others. The company’s order book is comfortable in all verticals, ranging from three months to six months. Being an export thrust company, the delivery of the right product at the right time is the USP of Goodluck globally. Hence, we have visibility of orders in advance. Moreover, we are not suppliers to OEMs; rather, we are vendor partners for major OEMs and so, the order book is not a point of concern for us.  

What are your Capex plans for FY23? Also, what are your debt reduction plans?  

We don’t have any big-ticket expansion plan in the pipeline for the current financial year. However, to optimise production, balancing equipment will be put in different verticals. Along with it, regular maintenance Capex will be undertaken. Our aim is to achieve 85 per cent plus capacity utilisation while some interesting projects are under study by our development team and we will take a call at an appropriate time. 

Can you throw some light on the new opportunities that you are focussing on, particularly, in the defence supplies segment?

Currently, the supply of steel is short world-over due to the closure of capacity in China and the destruction of capacity in Ukraine. Also, no major investment has been made in steel making and mining of its raw materials, which has resulted in these shortages & elevated prices. With the government's strong focus on infrastructure, the demand for steel products is expected to remain bullish for the next several years, which is extremely positive for the companies like us.  

Moreover, our continuous endeavour is to expand our reach in different segments through our specialised product offerings. The defence sector is one such sector that offers great opportunities. Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has empanelled our company to supply some products, and we hope to build the same.  

What are some of the biggest challenges that you are currently facing?  

The volatility of steel prices, logistics costs, and shortage of containers due to geopolitical factors are some of the biggest challenges that the entire industry is confronting. We are hopeful that some of these issues will be sorted out very soon. At the same time, we are hopeful of tiding over these challenges due to demand buoyancy in India and beyond.  

At the moment, what are your top three strategic objectives?  

In the near to medium-term, we will continue to build on our strengths. As such, we plan to consistently push for export and focus on increasing capacity utilisation as well as look for opportunities for continuous market expansion for our products.