In conversation with Parag Jhaveri MD and CEO, Yasho Industries Limited

We are focusing on improving our product mix to better value-added products over the next few years, says Parag Jhaveri MD and CEO of Yasho Industries Limited.    

What is your outlook on the Indian speciality chemicals sector?   

The Indian speciality chemicals segment continues to grow significantly, with businesses all across the globe looking for an alternate supplier to China. This has led to a steady increase in demand for the Indian speciality chemicals domain. Furthermore, India is the manufacturing hub of 70,000 chemicals, which can cater to a wide variety of speciality chemical clients across the globe. Since speciality chemicals are value-added chemicals with multiple uses across industries, they will always find utility.     

In Q2FY22 the company reported its highest quarterly and half-year performance on various parameters. What factors contributed the most to help you outperform?   

As a company serving over 1,000 clients, and catering to some of the largest companies across industries, we have always focused on continuous growth and expansion. We have continued this growth streak for FY 22, recording our highest ever quarterly and half-year performance, on the back of our varied product offerings and steady focus on the future, through activities like capacity expansion and further improving our product mix for high margin products. Indian chemical suppliers like us could also benefit from the worldwide trend of de-risking the Chinese supply chain, with many global MNCs looking for alternate suppliers. Furthermore, our robust R&D strategy as well as steadily building up our expertise in production and global distribution over the last few years has further helped boost our profits. We have also made it a priority to adhere to international standards for our products. We have 35 products which are REACH registered, which has helped us to increase our sales in the European region.     

Yasho Industries has completed capacity expansion through debottlenecking to serve incremental demand in H2FY22. Can you throw some light on the same?   

Our strategic presence across the major ports and relationships with clients in over 50 countries has helped us to gain a competitive edge in all our markets. The decision was taken in order to cater to the growing demand for our products. At our three units, we have extended our capacity from 9,200 MTPA to 11,000 MTPA. All three of our units are located in Vapi, Gujarat to ensure easy access for import of raw materials and export of finished goods. 1800 MTPA was added through debottlenecking at Unit 1 and Unit 2.     

What are your top three strategic priorities?   

Being a speciality chemical company, our R&D is the backbone of Yasho Industries. It has contributed greatly to the growth and expansion of our company and is one of our key priorities. We are focusing on improving our product mix to better value-added products over the next few years. The company has recently opened an office in the Netherlands to increase its reach in the European market. We now have 35 products that are REACH registered. Exports contribute to more than 60 per cent of our revenue so we are focusing on increasing our market presence globally.