Relationship capital

Relationships can stay strong
Even when the thread is virtual.

  1. Home
  2. Capital-wise performance
  3. Relationship capital

The successful launch and outreach to customers amid the trying times is a true reflection of the

spirit of pushing the boundaries with a ‘never say no’ mindset.

Agile adaptation is the new competitive edge in a fast-changing world.

When we were unable to reach customers physically, we decided to go the digital route to address their seepage woes amid the raging pandemic. We launched Ambuja Kawach, a water-repellent cement, virtually, the first time in our history. It was launched successively across several markets, reaching out to ~5,000 dealers and selling 53,611 tonnes in 2020.

However, the launch brought a major challenge to the fore. Most of our customers had suspended construction work due to COVID-related restrictions. And when they restarted, there were no engineers onsite to guide the construction workers.

An engineer from the Technical Services team quickly came up with an innovative idea – to provide engineering services remotely through video calls, and rallied the entire team into action. Digital banners were put up to create awareness of the site supervision service. It became the most sought at several construction sites.

Relationships thrive on the power to drive change individually and collectively with strength and confidences

Ambuja KAWACH becomes first product to be launched virtually

Tech advancements becoming instant hit at several construction sites

We foster strong partnerships with our key stakeholders, a major component of them being our consumers, suppliers and contractors. We believe, the benefits of our business should accrue as much to the Company as to these crucial segments of the value chain.

Our diverse range of environment-friendly products reach our intended customers through a robust retail network backed by superior logistics management.

Active vendors and contractors
7,681

SDGs impacted

2020 Highlights:
Nurturing relationships, ensuring
higher stakeholder retention

KEY INPUTS

  • Vendors assessed in supply chain for ESG
  • 138 new vendors were screened for sustainability risks
  • Resolution of customer complaints
  • Value-added services for customers
  • Connect initiatives for key influencers

KEY OUTCOMES

1,547

Total suppliers assessed in 2020 for sustainability risks

PRE-QUALIFIED

Vendors through sustainable supply chain assessment
Impact on other capitals
Financial capital

Increased customer loyalty leading to enhanced business scope and revenues

Manufactured capital

Improvement in business efficiency and service offerings through customer insights

Intellectual capital

Innovative and value-added products based on customer insights

Social capital

Improved initiatives around community development activities

Human capital

Emission reduction driven by effective demand side management

Natural capital

Emission reduction driven by effective demand side and green product development

Stakeholders impacted

  • Suppliers
  • Dealers
  • Construction professionals
  • Government and regulatory authorities
  • Media

Material issues addressed

  • Procurement practices
  • Sustainable supply chain
  • Green supply chain (logistics and transport)
  • Compliance with regulatory requirements
  • Marketing communication and reputation

Key risks addressed

  • Maintaining market position
  • Competition risk

Over the years, we have created a strong product portfolio for our consumers. Along with robust quality, these products are environmentally‑responsible and help our consumers in saving construction cost as well as time. Our stringent quality control measures ensure that we do not compromise on raw material quality and process integrity. Our access to best practices of LafargeHolcim helps us in bringing in globally benchmarked processes in India, resulting in superior outputs. Our wide product portfolio includes differentiated products for diverse climatic conditions, along with other sustainable and innovative building materials and solutions.

Amongst the key consumer segments, we have been focusing on IHBs; we customise our product mix based on construction segment needs selectively by optimising our revenue.

Considering their busy lifestyle, our customers barely have enough time to be involved in the construction process and mostly rely on contractors. We were among the early players to notice this reliance and started focusing on the contractors. Within the span of a year, ~46,000 contractors were actively working with us.

We also introduced Ambuja Certified Technology. It is a holistic customer-way solution, designed to assist the customer in choosing the right contractor, right products, and right construction methods to build a strong and durable home. In addition to offering best quality sustainable products, it also provides a complete package of building solutions like zero water curing, concrete mix proportioning, rainwater harvesting solutions, skill up-gradation of mason and contractors and knowledge‑sharing with professionals.

Customer support and satisfaction
The customer remains one of our most important stakeholders, and we have always made concerted efforts to ensure high level of customer satisfaction. We systematically measure customer satisfaction through our engrained channels and continuously transform our services to help them build structures that are more resilient, resource-efficient and cost-effective. We measure brand equity by conducting brand health studies on individual customers. The satisfaction level of dealers is evaluated using the Net Promoter Score (NPS) methodology.

Net Promoter survey helps us to get the views of Ambuja Cement’s advocates (promoters) rather than its critics (detractors).

While an NPS score above 70 is considered to be top quartile and suggests a high number of recommenders of our brand, we received a score of 79, demonstrating the high satisfaction level among customers.

Product quality complaints are managed through a customer complaint handling system accessed through a toll-free number (1800 22 3010), printed on all cement bags.

Performance in 2020

  • 9,500+ dealer network in 2020
  • 35,000+ retailer network in 2020

Landmark projects where Ambuja Cement products were used

Project Products
Mumbai Trans Harbour Link Project Ambuja Cement and Alccofine
Mumbai Metro Project Ambuja Cement, Alccofine, along with concrete mix design services
CLC Bridge across Govind Sagar Reservoir, Himachal Pradesh Ambuja Plus Premium, Alccofine
Mumbai Nagpur Samruddhi Express Highway (13-16) Ambuja Cement, along with concrete trials conducted at site lab
Oberoi Sky City, Mumbai Ambuja Cement, along with services of HolcimHeat, Methylene Blue and Concrete Trail
Bagodara to Vasad Highway Project (Gujarat) Ambuja Cement
Bhayla to Bagodara Highway Project–NH 47 (Gujarat) Ambuja Cement
Baroda Kim Express Highway (Gujarat) Ambuja Cement
Chhara Kodinar Jetty work (Gujarat) Ambuja Cement
AIIMS Bilaspur (Chhattisgarh) Ambuja Cement

Strengthening our market reach
At Ambuja Cement, we focus on deepening our distribution reach to capitalise on the burgeoning retail cement market in India. More than 81% of our sale is derived from retail customers. Keeping this in mind, we have consistently strengthened our market reach by deepening our presence in the existing markets and expanding to newer markets.

We enjoy a significant footprint across the western, eastern and northern markets of India, with customers ranging from IHBs to national (private and government undertakings) and international construction firms. We have a network of more than 35,000 retail stockists servicing our customers across markets. We plan to enter Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, and Eastern Uttar Pradesh to increase our presence and have appointed ~600 dealers in these three markets. We initiated various ATL and BTL activities and digital marketing campaigns to strengthen brand visibility and boosted sales in these markets through various schemes.

Our focus on premiumisation saw strong traction during 2020, driven by both push and pull effects. To take forward this premiumisation journey, we added Kawach, a water-repellent cement, and Ambuja Plus, a higher strength cement, to our portfolio.We are ensuring lower lead time to drive the sale of premium products, along with higher profitability and 24x7 availability of technical services for our channel partners. These were backed by multiple ATL and BTL activities and digital marketing to create the pull effect.

Our initiatives of engaging with suppliers include, but are not limited to, health and safety, contractor safety management, sustainable procurement, anti-bribery and anti-corruption directive, third-party due diligence and automation in SAP-Ariba. Vendors are expected and encouraged to demonstrate good corporate citizenship and sustainable development. As part of our Sustainable Procurement Initiative (SPI) we assess our suppliers, who are allocated with a sustainability risk rating based on the methodology defined in our SPI manual. Through the SPI guidelines, our suppliers are mapped for high, medium or low risks.

In 2020, we engaged with 7,681 Tier-I suppliers and prioritised the potential high-risk suppliers based on three categories – Anti-Bribery and Corruption (ABC), sustainable development and contractor health and safety. The suppliers consisting of 80% of the total spend were classified as critical. We identified 1,660 critical suppliers for sustainability assessment out of the total Tier-I suppliers. The top three categories of critical suppliers include production services providers (including manpower contractors), facilities service providers and logistics service providers.

New suppliers are made aware of and provided with a copy of the Code of Business Conduct for Suppliers or commonly known as Supplier Code of Conduct (SCC), and their consent to follow the SCC is obtained. The SCC provides a summary of our expectation from its suppliers/contractors in all procurement dealings. The SCC covers the standards specified in Social Accountability Standard SA 8000 and EMS ISO 14001.

Growth in sales volume of Ambuja Cement from
2016- 2020
(% CAGR)
1.4

Relationship management
One of the key attributes of maintaining good supplier relationship is fairness and transparency. Our supportive system, ethical way of handling situations and continuous efforts at building on our relationship with partners has given us an edge in the competition.

To strengthen the bond with our dealers and vendors, we include the following initiatives in our Ambuja Parivar family engagement events and contests:

  • Annual Gruhalaxmi Conference events
  • Ambuja Ke Star Kalakar singing competition
  • Region-wise relevant festival events like Holi Milan, Diwali Milan etc.
  • Annual excursions for dealers and their families
  • Ambuja Kawach Mediclaim Health Insurance Policy
  • Ambuja Aasman – Award winning loyalty programme for our channel partners
  • Annual scholarship for children of Ambuja Parivar members

We have developed various digital platforms to engage our stakeholders, including Ambuja Dealer Connect for our channel partners, My World for customer services; Ambuja Abhimaan for our contractors, One Channel for our sales force and Ambuja Foundation for our professionals (AEC community).

Brand development
Over the years, we, have delivered the promise of ‘giant compressive strength’ through our differentiated products and solutions for diverse customer segments. Driven by engaging communication, superior product quality, and strong technical support to consumers, we have consistently scored 5+ in Nielsen’s Brand Equity study for the last 10 years. Our innovative and interactive communication techniques have bagged us the tag ‘The Master of Humble Brags’.

Customer engagement initiatives
During 2020, we launched Ambuja Abhimaan, a unique digital loyalty programme for our key influencers— contractors—who play a crucial role in the decision-making journey of the IHB segment. This programme aims to empower the contractors by encouraging them to gain knowledge and certification, offering them rewards for promoting sustainable construction practices and engaging them in different types of relationship-building activities.

During lockdown we also conducted few digital engagement events like Ambuja Ke Kalakar, a competition engaging the entire family in painting, cooking and photography, among others.

Ambuja Parivar Ke Star Singer

In a bid to keep our channel partners strong and motivated during the COVID-19 pandemic, our MD and CEO, Mr. Neeraj Akhoury, came up with the idea of connecting the dealers by organising a talent hunt competition on the digital platform— ‘Ambuja Parivar Ke Star Singer’.

The event saw numerous entries from dealers and their family members, who registered through Facebook, WhatsApp and other social media.

Apart from singing, there were other competitions, such as Bollywood quiz, Sangeet Sandhya, drawing contest, cooking recipe-sharing contest, among others that allowed them to show off their talents.

The Grand Finale was judged by star singer, Shaan, who enthralled the audience with his performance as well as humour and charm. The finalists got a chance to sing with him, interact with him and got some quick tips on how to improve their singing.

Social
capital
Human
capital