High cost, price war led to sale of India Cements: Srinivasan to staff

Long before the news of Kumar Mangalam Birla-controlled UltraTech Cement acquiring India Cements hit the media, its managing director, Narayanaswami Srinivasan, delivered a poignant farewell speech to the company's employees on Sunday morning.

- SHINE JACOB

His voice, heavy with emotion and the weight of five and a half decades in the cement industry, resonated with the sense of an era drawing to a close.

He attributed the company's sale to a confluence of adversities: The relentless price war waged by competitors that "can crush" India Cements, and the firm's inability to liquidate its land holdings to navigate through a financial crisis. The sale, he admitted, was a last resort.

Addressing an audience of select 300 employees, the 79-year-old industry veteran was probably bidding adieu to a long career punctuated by both triumphs and tribulations. Yet, even as the chapter closed on his tenure, he sought to reassure his audience—there is "no need for anybody in India Cements to feel insecure or threatened".

"I am going to leave India Cements," he declared. "The reason is that our competitors can crush us with lower prices. With a slightly higher cost of production, we had taken all steps to reduce our costs."

India Cements' story is deeply entwined with the post-Independence industrial fabric of India.