Asia’s Most Promising Leaders – Ashok Kajaria

With over 25 years of experience, Ashok Kajaria, chairman and managing director, Kajaria Ceramics, has become synonymous with quality and innovation in the ceramic tile industry.

 Under his leadership, Kajaria Ceramics expanded its production capacity by leaps and bounds. As of now, the brand enjoys high recall and awareness among its consumers, owing to its rigorous marketing campaign along with sheer volume of production. After receiving his degree in engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles, Kajaria earned a deep understanding of not only the effective marketing and branding strategies but also the production process.

 As of now, Kajaria Ceramics is concentrating on expanding its share in the domestic market through further acquisitions in the country. This is expected to add to the production capacity and reach an output of 100 million square metres per year by March 2018.

Under the aegis of Ashok Kajaria, Kajaria Ceramics was positioned as the largest Indian ceramic tile manufacturer with a production capacity of 54.1 million square metres per year.

 Since Kajaria Ceramics’ founding in 1988, Ashok Kajaria has been moving forward on many fronts to capitalise on solid growth opportunities to improve the company’s operating efficiency and sharpen its Ashok Kajaria has led several internal growth initiatives as well as strategic and innovative initiatives. As a result, Kajaria Ceramics’ business has grown manifold. Apart from growth, Ashok Kajaria strongly believes in focussing on consumer satisfaction and feedback.

 Under his leadership, Kajaria Ceramics reported an all-round improvement in one of the most challenging years marked by declining consumer spending and spiralling gas prices. In a year when the average Indian kept his purse strings tight, Kajaria managed to shrink the company’s working capital cycle to around 25 days, which is considered to be an industry benchmark.

 Over the last few years, Kajaria Ceramics has incepted sanitary ware demand through prudent outsourcing (imports), for which it is now creating a captive manufacturing back-end. This diversification will position Kajaria Ceramics as a holistic bathroom solution provider, thus strengthening mind share and wallet share among the customers.

In 2014, Kajaria Ceramics closed with a top line of INR 20 billion and targets to reach top line of INR 30 billion by 2016.