Anubhav Gupta: Strategising growth setting aside the pandemic

APL Apollo Tubes Limited (APL Apollo) has transformed itself into India’s largest branded structural steel tubes manufacturer and one of the world’s top five players in this segment, thanks to the strategic vision of Mr. Anubhav Gupta, Chief Strategy Officer of the APL Apollo.

 “When you create a new market, you capture 100 per cent share”, says Mr. Gupta while revealing APL Apollo’s impressive performance regardless of the obstacles created by the pandemic. At Rs 2,321 million, the company’s EBIDTA was up 45 per cent year on year while net profit at Rs 1,320 million, was up 78 per cent in March 2020. Interest payouts declined 41 per cent to Rs 159 million during this period following a massive reduction in net debt, from Rs 7.9 billion to Rs 3 billion.

As a visionary leader, he has successfully managed to keep the profitability and growth of APL Apollo intact through his strategic planning and management even d this period of crisis.

Anubhav Gupta brought 12 years of investment experience to APL Apollo when he joined it in 2019. In his previous equity research analyst positions at Maybank Kim Eng and Emkay Global Financial Services, he had helped midcap firms raise funds to expand as well as successfully cut their debt.

The same skills he has avidly deployed at APL Apollo. He advises the management on innovative product avenues, cost control, corporate development, communications and marketing. Aimed at creating a strong positioning of APL Apollo within domestic as well as global markets, his strategies have created a strong positioning of APL Apollo within the domestic and global markets.

 Commenting on the excellent quarterly performance of APL Apollo, Mr. Anubhav Gupta, Chief Strategy Officer, APL Apollo Tubes Limited, said, “The current unprecedented time has made the unorganized, smaller, unbranded players suffer a lot. Even though the unorganised sector has been going slow anyway since 2016 after demonetisation, GST, the overall banking crisis and finally the continuing period of lockdown, we have been able to capture considerable market share and have been aggressive on the pricing front too. Without compromising on our margins, we took up many cost-control measures, making our pricing more competitive. We passed on these gains as sweeteners to distributors.”

He believes that since steel is a global commodity and bought and sold in free markets globally, the government should let steel be totally deregulated. That works fine because ultimately steel prices move up or down based on global supply and demand mismatches. “I think the government has been fair. What it can do still better is boost production. It is disheartening to see iron ore being processed to make steel, export, and then being exported back to us. We should be able to process our resources to make steel. This would boost the sector and generate employment. A bit more focus on mineral processing and steel production would help in improving the overall economic situation,” he adds.

From Brand Desk