NEW DELHI: Birla Plus is now UltraTech cement. The Aditya Birla group on Monday announced rebranding of its cement business by bringing it under the UltraTech umbrella and creating the country’s largest cement brand with volumes of over 25 million tonnes per annum (mtpa).
The group also said it would increase its cement production capacity by almost 50% to 46 mtpa in the next one year as it seeks to increase sales and gain higher market share. The group had earlier rebranded L&T Cement as Ultratech after the takeover three years ago.
“UltraTech will be the face of our cement business,” OP Puranmalka, group executive president (marketing and strategy) of Aditya Birla Group told reporters here.
The group has a total cement capacity of 31 mtpa. It will add another 15 mtpa over the next 12 months, improving its market share to 22-23% from 19.5% now.
UltraTech CemCo alone will be spending about Rs 3,300 crore over the next three years on expansion and de-bottlenecking and setting up captive power plants at its various locations.
Birla Plus is a major brand of Grasim Industries Ltd with presence in the northern region. Currently, 55% of its capacity is UltraTech, while the rest comprises Birla Plus and other regional brands.
“We opted for UltraTech as the national brand because while on the one hand, it gives us the opportunity to strengthen common attributes of a premium brand, scale of operations and the Aditya Birla group’s reputation, it also provides an opportunity to build on the positioning platform of ‘expert’ and imagery signifying ‘progress’, ‘cutting edge technology’ and ‘modernity’,” said Puranmalka.
He said UltraTech as a brand has extremely positive associations and awareness even in non-UltraTech markets such as the north zone.
After the consolidation, 90% of the total cement capacity would be under UltraTech brand. The remaining would be under regional brands such as Vikram Cement in North Zone, Birla Super in Bangalore, Pune and Mysore and Rajashree Cement in the West and South zones.
The brand equity would be much better, Puranmalka said, adding sales are also expected to improve. UltraTech, with 17 mtpa capacity, is the second largest standalone cement company. Parent Grasim has a 51% stake in the company.
