A Solid Player

Chairman Sajjan Bhajanka steered Kolkata-headquartered Century Plyboards into a ₹3,000-crore giant through calculated expansions. Next stop: a ₹5,000-crore top line

- Vidya S.

SAJJAN BHAJANKA HAS the sniffles. Temperature variations from a whirlwind multi-city tour following the launch of their expanded Hoshiarpur factory in early February has given the 71-year-old Chairman of wood panel company Century Plyboards, a cold, a minor inconvenience considering he is racing towards a ₹5,000 crore-revenue target by FY26.

That means nearly doubling the ₹3,000 crore-plus top line Century generated in FY22—that took it nearly 36 years to achieve—within four years. This also translates into a CAGR of 14-15 per cent, that too, without taking any debt and relying entirely on internal cash flows from making and selling doors, plywood, laminates, veneers, MDF (medium-density fibreboard) and particle boards under multiple sub-brands. Not an impossible feat for the debt-free company given its strong balance sheet and diversified portfolio, say analysts tracking the firm.

“All our companies—Century Plyboards, Star Cement, Shyam Century Ferrous—are debt-free. We are a little conservative, because we seldom went out from our prime area of wooden panels and laminates,” says Bhajanka, seated across a busy wooden desk in his swanky seventh-floor office in Kolkata’s Taratala. Framed by sundry books, figurines and photos, he says in measured tones, “All our promoters are very simple. Their personal requirements are very less.” The promoters own 73 per cent of the company—almost the maximum permissible limit.