Morbi has been the epicenter of Industrial growth
since years. It has a deep drawn history of consistent production of various
products in mass capacity. One of the major aspects of Morbi being an
industrial hub is the entrepreneurship zeal of the people here.
Ceramics was introduced in Morbi 60-70 years back.
It is no news that all ceramics have the basic raw material as clay. So does
roof tiles.
Small Beginnings
Initially, the industry started as a back yard
production. Most of the now big entrepreneurs were then traditional home based
part time businessmen. After working in one or the other factories as
employees, they came back home to manufacture roof tiles. The whole family
normally used to get involved in production. With no automation to support,
most of the work was done manually. These start-ups were very challenging, but
led to the development of an altogether new sector.
The processes were so primitive that wet clay was
stamped by feet. Every member of the family stamped clay to give in proper
mixture as well as grain structure and shape. Cutting too was done by hands. A
250 pcs per day production would have made a manufacturer proud to be one among
the best.
As the demand for the product increased,
mechanization started playing its role as well. The part timers soon became
full time business owners and manufacturers. The first phase of mechanization
was the Hand Press, which were easier to operate and also increased production.
The capacity went up to 500-750 pcs per shift, which was excellent in those
times.
The number of production units too started increasing,
given the rise in demand. While most of these tiles were manufactured in
southern India, (named Mangalore tiles
popularly), Morbi soon came up as a fierce competitor.
The Big Boom
As time progressed, mechanization improved further
to provide revolving press. The capacities went up to 7000 pcs per day, which
was really great.
Most of the Old brand names of Ceramics today,
that have made it big started with Roof tiles. There was a phase when Morbi was
recognized with the caption “Naliya, Ghadiya ane Taliya” literally meaning, Roofs (Naliya), Clocks (Ghadiya) And Mosaic
Tiles (Taliya: Flooring). The strong demand and easy availability of
factors of production motivated other businessmen to invest in manufacturing
and there was a vast mushrooming of manufacturers of roof tiles. At its peak,
it is believed that there were about 300 small and big manufacturers of Roof
tiles.
The Competition
Roof tiles had made their way into the market with
astonishing demand. The rural housing as well as some constructions in cities
too had the need for roof tiles. The going was one of the best.
With time, every industry was growing as so was
India. The change was quiet slow initially, but it had its effect. There were
better substitutes starting to make their way into the construction sector.
Structured Buildings, cement roof sheets, Aluminium roof sheets as well as RCC
roofs became an easy replacement. The better part was, these were more reliable
on the long run.
Though roof tiles are much more health friendly to
the skin, other replacements became very convenient to implement, had a better
long term value and the purchasing power for the same had also increased.
With the advent of Multi stories, Roof tiles’
demand died quickly. Coupled with other replacements and technologies for their
implementation, roof tiles faced a very stiff competition.
This discouraged most of the entrepreneurs who
slowed down their productions and started planning diversification into
sanitary ware or Floor tiles. The panic started taking place and a domino
effect soon followed.
A Good Diversification Opportunity
As an addition of insult to injury, came the
rising demand in other ceramic products, namely wall tiles and floor tiles.
These products offered the technology and mass production advantage. They were
capital intensive rather than labor intensive. It made sense to diversify. This
opportunity helped the roof tiles manufacturers to fast change their lines of
production as well as get into a new product line whose demand was increasing.
These new sub sectors of ceramics also offered
much better profitability. They were the new trend products that made every
entrepreneur get their plants redesigned to meet the new production
requirements, leaving the roof tiles manufacturing altogether.
The mix of danger of demand slide in Roof tiles
sector and growing demand and opportunity in other ceramic sectors, led to the
downfall of the rule roof tiles industry in Morbi.
At present there are only about 60-70 string
manufacturers in Roof tiles sector in Morbi. They too are fighting a battle of
survival and there are challenges to the same as well. There have been no new
comers for the last 15 years. This gives an indication of the challenge the
industry is facing.
Major Challenges
· Turnover is very low.
· Cement sheet have become the ideal
replacement.
· Most buildings are multi-storied.
· Demand is less and is falling fast.
· New trends are emerging and we cannot
keep pace with them.
· Labor problems are increasing with many
other industries coming up and demand for labor going skywards.
· Automation Technology is not there,
forcing manual work, which makes the production unviable.
The Hope for Future
There seem to be evidently some solutions to the
slipping industry status. First is the radical revamp in technology to go for
automation. This can lead to lowering of costs. The technology exists in China
and Italy. However, the demand does not justify the investment in this technology
and that too at a radical level.
The colored roof tiles are finding better takers
now in the markets. With the trends changing and technology available to
provide for this change it is but a small solution to the bigger problem.
Exports have to increase, as some third world
countries as well as countries where single storey designer houses are a rage,
can pick up a lot of these tiles that too at a good rate.
