Lafarge India Wins Annual CLO Award for Safety Turning Program




Lafarge Indians Learning & developments has won the prestigious Annual CLO ( Chief Learning Officers ) Awards. Lafarge Indian received the silver troffy in the best risk, safety & policy compliance Training program category for initiatives taken to ensure increase safety compliance.
            The annual CLO award is instituted by the Tata institute of social sciences and international labour organization. It is partnered by the government of India and the Australian trade commission and supported by Indian society of training and development.
            The evaluation criteria for the award included degree of difficulty, significance of the learning and business challenge, innovation in approach delivery methodologies and content development and demonstration of improvement in organizational/ team performance.
            To make Lafarge India the safest company with zero incidents and occupational health illnesses, the learning & development team partnered with the health & safety team to develop a structured approach to bring about a behavioral change among employees towards safety. A safety induction module has been developed and module has been developed and deployed.
            All new joiners are briefed about lafarge’s safety standards and set also are also provided basic information about lafarge’s H&S standards & advisories, safety policy.
            A set of H&S rules have also been formulated and employees are mandated to follow these rules. Employee safety matrix is maintained to track number of safety trainings attended by any employee, topics he has received trainings on, topics he has received trainings on, topics of which training is to be imparted and periodicity of refresher session.
            Other initiatives include field training for senior management members, implementation of the safety observation tracking system, consistent safety communication in local languages and development of specific modules like Visible Felt Landership.
             Speaking about this win Martin Kriegner, Country CEO Lafarge Indian said, “We are pleased to have received the Silver Trophy in the Best Risk, Safety and Policy Compliance Training Program category for initiatives Lafarge has taken to ensure increased safety compliance's.
            Safety is our priority number one at Lafarge and this recognition will motivate us to keep Safety as our priority across all aspects of our professional and personal life and make Lafarge India the safest company with zero incidents.”
            Lafarge is a learning organization and Learning & Development is a key function. The organization focuses strongly on development opportunities at the organizational, team and individual level. The Learning and Development team in India has made its mark by addressing various training needs related to Safety, Technical training, Soft Skills, functional skills and other organizational competencies. A term of 20 trainers are involved in nurturing talents locally and globally as trainers and coaches.  

Johnson Tiles Plans Retails Consumer Experience Zones in TN




H&R Johnson (India) is planning to ramp up its retail footprint in Tamil Nadu by Establishing consumer experience zones across the State. These consumer experience zones will take the from of shop-in-shop retail with three key modules branded as Johnson Arena. Johnson Class and Johnson Exclusive.
            The company is setting up these consumer experience zones across the country with plans to set-up more than 300 experience zones over the next two to three years. Out of these nearly 150 will be set-up in South India. Tamil Nadu will account for nearly half of the planned stores in South. H&R Johnson (India) focuses on driving penetration in Tier 2 & 3 markets through its retail expansion.
            Commenting on the consumer experience zones being set-up the company in Tamil Nadu, Mr B Jagannathan, Senior General Manager – South 2 & 3 said, “The customer experience zones we are setting up is the thrust we put on customer experience as the core of our marketing activities. Through these retail customer experience zones we will focus on providing a wholesome brand experience to the customer tarher than just selling products.
            Today’s consumers  are clear that they expect a personalized customer experience. They want this personalized experience across every element of the product mix and at every layer of the decision making process. Moreover, they want these experience to be driven by their product, channel and frequency preferences. Out retail expansion is in line with this customer need.”
            H&R Johnson (India)’s plans to scale up retail footprint through its consumer experience zones is in adding to the modern retail stores it operates 54 modern retail stores. The large format retail stores are called House of Johnson while the smaller format modern retail stores are called Johnson Corners.
            The company plans to expand the footprint of House of Johnson stores to over 20 stores during the current fiscal. The modern retail footprint is spread across Metros as well as Tier 2 cities.
            The company has also undertaken technical upgrade at its manufacturing units in Karaikal near Tamil Nadu as well as its Silica technical upgrade, the Karaikal unit commenced commercial production of Digital wall tiles.
            The digital wall tiles being rolled out from the unit are branded as DigiStyle. These are special collections aimed for the discerning choice of the South Indian customer. The technical upgrade a Silica JV will ensures that the company can reproduce designs on Johnson’s Marbonite Slabs through the digital printing technology.
            H&R Johnson has implemented a capex of Rs 400 crores to build capabilities across its business verticals. It has already invested Rs. 225 crore to increase the vitrified manufacturing capacity at its Silica JV unit in Andra Pradesh. It has set-up its second bathroom product manufacturing unit in J&K.
            With this unit, the overall investments in the bathroom product & accessories business have crossed Rs 40 crores. The company has also invested nearly Rs 50 crore in setting up its new unit to manufacture engineered marble & quartz.
            Post these investments, at peak capacity utilization the Silica JV unit will potentially contribute nearly Rs 300 crore; the two bathroom products units will jointly contribute Rs 100 crore and the Engineered Marble & Quartz business will add Rs 150 crore to the company’s overall topline. The funding of this capex is made through a combination of debt and internal accruals.
            About H&R Johnson (India): Established in 1958, H&R Jonson (India) is the pioneer of ceramic tiles in India. Over the past five decades, HRJ has added various product categories to offer complete solutions to its customers. Today, HRJ enjoys the reputation of being the only entity in India to offer end-to-end solutions of Tiles, Sanitary ware, Bath Fittings and Kitchens.
            HRJ along with its Joint Ventures and subsidiaries has a capacity of over 51 million m2 per annum spread at its manufacturing plants across the country. Under its flagship brand, Johason, HRJ offers glazed wall and floor tiles, bath products, kitchens, laminate / engineered wooden flooring, and engineered marble and quartz.
            Johnson’s Marbonite brand offers a complete range of vitrified tiles (polished and glazed) and Johnson’s Endura offers industrial tiles and tiles for soecial applications like bathrooms / high traffic areas / swimming pools etc. During the fiscal year-ended 31st March 2012, H&R Johnson’s gross revenues crossed Rs. 1729 crores with total sales volume crossing over 46 million Square meters.
            Its pan-India distribution network is one of the largest in the industry and comprises of over 54 modern retail stores called House of Johnson & Johnson Corners besides 1200 dealers, 15000 sub-dealers and a large network of retail franchisees.