Thermax Ltd, as part of the restructuring of its business operations, will focus only on the company's core businesses involving energy and environment. It has also decided to move away from software, electronics and other un-related sectors.
Prakash Kulkarni, joint managing director, Thermax group, said: "non-core business like software, electronics and all others will be either unloaded completely or spun off into joint ventures in the future." He further pointed out that the engineer major will "focus on its core business of energy and environment, including water-treatment activities."
The Rs 500-crore, Pune-based company had recently reshuffled its top management. Prior to the rearrangement, Kulkarni was the managing director of Thermax Babcock & Wilcox.
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The company has registered a 15 per cent rise in its order-book position in the first quarter of the current year. Further, Thermax has orders worth more than Rs 500 crore for engineering, procurement and construction for which financial closure is expected to take place soon.
"In the first few months of the current year we have received a lot new inquires. However, things in June have slowed down probably due to ongoing border disputes," he said.
Spelling out Thermax's future growth strategies, Kulkarni said the group now plans to concentrate on the export market, mainly for its boilers and chillers.
"We have build up a front-end value chain in the US, European, and other major markets. Further, we have a good dealer and agent network, and our own engineers to support the system which is going to give us advantage in the international market," he added. In the last financial year, Thermax had registered exports worth around Rs 100 crore. In the current year the company is looking at a 25 per cent growth in exports to Rs 130 crore.
Speaking about his role, Kulkarni said the main task ahead for him is to bring about improvement in productivity. "Our cost-reduction measures need to support marketing strategies on the export front, as we cannot depend on the domestic market alone for growth," he added. t