Featuring Jigar K Parekh by Success Insights India
The Waterproofing industry in India.
“Problem is not the solution but lack of awareness”
Waterproofing is very important part during or after any construction. Waterproofing is carried out during the construction to improve the quality of construction. All Waterproofing chemical manufacturing companies have two different lines of activities i.e., B2B and B2C. B2B business is the supply and apply of chemicals during new constructions and B2C is the business where supply and apply of chemicals are during repair and rehabilitation of old buildings / structures.
It is been observed lately across India that the market is dominated with only few big MNC’s through their elephant size advertising and marketing activities and due to which they succeed in creating a brand recall value among the end user in B2B and B2C business. As the consumers do not have any technical knowledge about the products and their applications, there are various issues what they face after any waterproofing application they have carried out. There are also consumers who would not be interested in carrying out waterproofing surface treatments for cost savings during new constructions and that is due to lack of awareness that up to what extent the structure can be damaged in short period of time.
As there is lack of awareness about the product and its application among the consumers, they are mainly dependent to choose the right product for their requirement through the contractors / applicators who are not from any company but are just interested to provide the application service without any technical knowledge. All these applicators who may be associated with any Waterproofing chemical brand who are providing them better rates for the material, so they are always ready to promote the said brand to their customers.
Looking at all the above working practice by big brands and their so-called authorized contractors enjoy the monopoly business without providing any transparency to the customers or providing any technical knowledge to their customers about the product and specialized application for respective surface. As the customer creates the blind faith on the brand due to their brand recall value and low application cost by contractors, the customer is least bothered to even read any document like Warranty document/ technical product specifications / etc. before they select the brand or appoint a contractor for application. For E.g., No. 1. Mostly all the manufacturing companies provide the warranty for waterproofing up to 10 years but that is only for the material cost and with reducing balance % of cost every year and there is no warranty related to application cost. E.g. No.2. There are several companies who are promoting an elastomeric paint as waterproofing chemical through their advertising campaign, but the limitation of the product and
application is not highlighted during the campaign to mislead the consumers and start using this elastomeric paint across all the surfaces without having any technical knowledge.
There are lots of MSME and SME companies who are into manufacturing of waterproofing chemicals, might have developed much better-quality products and also designed some good applications for different surfaces with latest technology are having slow growth. The problem in the industry is not to find the solutions but to create the awareness among the consumers and training to contractors to create better quality constructions with latest available products and applications. For E.g. “Brick bat Coba” is the oldest form of waterproofing carried out while constructing a new terrace and which is been practiced till date across India not only in rural but urban areas. This brick bat coba have various disadvantages like 1. The thickness of brickbat Coba is around 125 mm to 150 mm which increase the dead load of the structure. 2. The maintenance and repairing which is required for the Brick Bat Coba is very difficult
and complex. 3. There are the chances of developing cracks in the Brickbat waterproofing due to its rigidness. 4. If the cracks develop then it is impossible to repair it and prevent the entry of moisture for a longer period of time. 5. The Construction of the Brick Bat Coba waterproofing required skilled workmanship because it gets affected by the climate variations and heavy rainfall.
We at Engineer Plus have developed some polymer-based products and designed an application with the same which can replace this system of Brick Bat Coba with just surface treatment on terrace and also comes with 10 years company warranty including product and application. This will also provide a life upto 25 years on surface with approximately half the cost of Brick Bat Coba. I, Jigar K Parekh – Executive Director along with Mr. Alok Bhandari – Managing Director at “Engineer Plus” a brand owned by Indore Colot Organics LTd. Since 1991 have been working towards development of this unorganized sector through a system driven approach by educating the consumers and channel partners with latest technology available in the market.
SOURCE : https://successinsightsindia.com/the-waterproofing-industry-in-india/