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As an emerging nation India is a case study in milestone events — economic growth, global joint ventures and rapid investments in infrastructure, from airports to highways. It’s in this last category — highway construction — that Strata India recently completed a milestone event for the company and for the nation.
By the end of May, Strata India had produced retaining walls for 16 overpass structures in little more than 10 months along an 80-kilometer highway stretching between Mumbai and Surat. More than 1 million special concrete blocks were produced on-site and used to create the flyover structures, some of which are more than 40 feet high. More than 1 million square yards of StrataGrid® was used to stabilize the soils used in building the overpasses.
“Nothing of this scale and speed in highway construction has been done before in India,” said Ashok Bhawnani, president of Strata India. “This project is taking our company to new heights and has established Strata India as a major player in highway construction.”
Making this accomplishment even more remarkable is the fact that just seven years ago, Strata India was a tiny distributorship consisting of four employees who were involved in importing StrataGrid from the U.S. into India. Today, Strata India has nearly 150 employees, and StrataGrid is the No. 1 selling geogrid material in India. In addition, Strata India has expanded to include not only the manufacture of geogrid, but also engineering and design services for highway structures, fabrication of concrete blocks and panels, and installation of retaining walls for flyovers. The company is also pursuing growth in the Middle East and other markets.
Strata India traces its roots to 2004 when Bhawnani, who has had a long career in textiles, identified an opportunity to provide geogrid for India’s rapidly expanding national highway system. Through a Google search and subsequent emails, Bhawnani connected with Chip Fuller, president of Strata Systems, which led to a joint venture in India.
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In May of 2007, Glen Raven acquired Strata Systems as part of its acquisition of national distributor John Boyle & Company. Harold Hill, president of Glen Raven Technical Fabrics, made a trip to Strata India with Fuller in the fall of 2007 to learn more about the joint venture, named Strata Geosystems (India) Pvt. Ltd.
“I was intrigued during my visit and set up a subsequent trip for Allen (Gant, Glen Raven president) and Wally (Wallace, general counsel) six weeks later,” Hill said. “Their trip was very memorable as we really connected with our new associates in India. We came away prepared to invest in their future and ours.”
Gant said all the strategic stars were in alignment for Glen Raven to invest in India even in the face of a global recession.
“The products that Strata offers are right in our sweet spot — technical, designed for a special application and unlike anything else on the market,” Gant said. “We also recognized that emerging markets around the world represent some of the strongest opportunities for us, and we could see many advantages to having a foothold in India.”
Glen Raven’s initial investment in Strata India funded the construction of a geogrid factory that could provide increased capacity and speed to market for StrataGrid. As the new operation continued to grow, it became apparent that providing geogrid materials was not enough to be a major player in the national highway program in India.
“We discovered that the only way to assure proper grid installation and quality was for us to expand our role into design, engineering and retaining wall installation,” Bhawnani said. “Today, we have evolved to a full-service model that extends from design through installation of retaining walls using our own proprietary StrataGrid, concrete blocks and panels.”
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The design, sales and business office for Strata India is located in Mumbai, the financial capital of India; manufacturing is in Daman, which is about 125 miles north of Mumbai. Strata India’s management team has also been strengthened, including the addition of Mujib Katrawala as
chief operating officer and Narendra Dalmia as co-director on the board and chief executive officer. These two experienced executives, in teamwork with Bhawnani, Fuller and others, have been essential to Strata India’s ability to execute large construction projects and manage the company’s rapid growth.
The success of Strata India continues a long tradition of international operations by Strata dating back to 1997 when Fuller established the company’s first offshore distributor. Fuller has continued to emphasize global expansion, recruiting partners around the world.
“When you operate in a country such as India, you have to have the agility to follow their culture and customs and conduct business their way, and you have to form a strong team,” Fuller said. “We have a world-class group of professionals in India that I would stack up against anyone in the world.”
For more information on Strata Systems, visit www.strataindia.com and www.geogrid.com.
