Growing Beyond Boundaries

Jindal Aluminium is growing organically and beyond its core business into new areas.

- C.H.Unnikrishnan

BE IT PEER PRESSURE OR THE NEW normal at India Inc. — the young generation of family entrepreneurs has always been impatient to achieve in just a few years, beyond what the first generation had achieved across many decades. Four-decade-old Jindal Aluminium too has now set itself a goal to double its turnover over the coming five years — and a young leadership is apparently confident of coping with the challenge.

Pragun Khaitan, scion of the Bangalore-based Jindal-Khaitan family, who is perhaps, among the youngest managing directors in the country, seems to be taking a comparatively cautious step. This Wharton School of Business graduate is an acolyte of his maternal grandfather and the founder and chairman of Jindal Aluminium, S. R. Jindal. Khaitan is committed to the task, but does not want to go overboard with it. A wider, but more synergetic diversification without deviating from the company’s core strength, was the growth model he wants to experiment with.

Critics though, find the Rs 5,000crore target too ambitious for such a short period. “In a commoditised industry (aluminium), which is always subjected to price and demand fluctuation, especially with competition coming from hundreds of unorganised local players (in the downstream segment) and cheaper imports, this target seems difficult,” said a senior executive in a large industry competitor, present in both the upstream and downstream business, adding that maintaining profitability was always a challenge in a low-margin business.

Wide Diversification