‘75F’s unique solutions GHCL STOCK PRICE MAY RISE 30% IN THE MEDIUM TERM reduce energy use, costs’
There is huge opportunity for widescale adoption of technology-driven energy efficiency interventions, says Gaurav Burman, VP & APAC President, India, 75F.
In current times, a lot of companies are moving towards the goal of enhancing energy efficiency along with optimizing comfort. 75F is one of them. Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Minneapolisusa, 75F is a fast-growing Building Intelligence Solutions provider that leverages the Internet of Things (IOT) and cloud computing to predict monitor, and proactively manage various elements in a building including its temperature, lighting, air quality, and its energy management needs. In the last five years alone, the company has notched up several customers including popular names like Border Foods, Magnet 360, Rockler, and Yoga Fit in the US, and has created hundreds of energy-efficient and intelligent buildings in the process. In August 2016, 75F launched its operations in India and has been growing steadily, acquiring several customers ever since. The Sunday Guardian spoke to Gaurav Burman, VP & APAC President, India, 75F, on several topics. Excerpts: Q: How 75F is contributing towards sustainable development? A: 75F’s solutions contribute to customers’ social, environmental, and economic success by increasing employee productivity, reducing energy use and other operational expenses, increasing property value, and increasing profits. The value offered to customers across the value chain can be best summed up as improved OE2. From a sustainability impact standpoint, what our solutions achieve is listed below:
Up to 50% savings on energy: HVAC and Lighting account for 65% of the total energy consumption in commercial buildings and traditional systems can guzzle a lot of energy as they are reactive and depend on dampers. 75F’s solution uses continuous commissioning with the help of sensor data and is predictive and proactive. With the help of IOT and Cloud Computing, 75F’s solutions can save up to 50% of the energy used for HVAC and Lighting leading to significant savings on utility bills. Not only this, but our smart sensors also consider other factors like indoor air quality and smart lighting that improves occupant comfort and indirectly leads to an improvement in employee productivity, thus improving the company’s triple bottom line.
Sustainability Impact: 75F’s solution deployed across just 16 facilities in 2019 resulted in 4,672,461 kwh of energy saved and 2,191,418 tons of CO2 emissions avoided. It also resulted in 7.5% improvement in Occupant Comfort and an ROI ranging from as low as 1.5-4 years.
Q: What is the mantra of 75F’s success as a fast-growing Building Intelligence Solution Provider? A: We aim to be the best I-BMS solution in the market that provides the highest energy savings, automation, comfort, indoor air quality, and level of automation while offering the most integrations. As a company, we value feedback from our customers and focus on being an agile start-up that comes up with improved or new solutions based on the changing needs of Facility Managers and the occupants of buildings.
Q: The Union Budget which was presented on 1 February has laid a major focus on capturing the emerging energy transition trends. What do you have to say about this?
A: While the government continues to focus on promoting renewable sources of energy on the supply side, we still have tremendous untapped opportunity for widescale adoption of technologydriven energy efficiency interventions, which can play an important role in managing the demand side. Reduction of energy consumption can directly contribute to the fiscal deficit targets in a meaningful way, while at the same time contributing to the long-term social and environmental goals. We would like to see some announcements like incentives, promotions, and awareness programs for the Corporate sector promoting direct adoption of energy efficiency investments, which may help unlock the Nation’s energy efficiency potentials. We are also expecting to see the further simplification of the GST compliance requirements, especially for small and medium-sized businesses. Freeing up the entrepreneur’s bandwidth will help the small business and traders put in more fire behind the growth engine. Multiple GST rates and a non-uniform credit scheme have a risk of increasing fear of non-compliance within the small traders and business segment as they are continuing to become more aware of the nuances associated with what is relatively still a newer tax regime. We are expecting to hear some significant incremental steps directed towards ease of compliance for the SME segment.
Q: What steps can be taken in achieving Sustainable Development Goals?
A: As the solution is powered by IOT and cloud computing, innovation is a continuous process. We started with a focus on the HVAC sector alone, but since then, our solutions have covered other areas like indoor air quality management and intelligent lighting. The possibilities for this technology are immense and IOT and cloud computing could completely revolutionize the smart buildings of the future.
Q: How has your business model been affected by the pandemic?
A: The pandemic has forced offices worldwide to remain shut and as a Building Management Solution, we experienced a few months of slow growth. But we came up with innovative solutions like the 75F Epidemic Mode to make offices secure when they open up postpandemic which implements the latest guidelines from scientific and government bodies like the CDC, ISHRAE, and ASHRAE, etc. Due to this, 75F has in fact seen 2x growth since the last quarter of 2020!
Q: What are 75F’s post-covid future plans?
A: Post-covid, 75F plans on adding new capabilities and being able to reach more geographies. Our goals could be listed as below: Geographical Expansion: Asia-pacific, Europe, Latin America, NAM; Industry Verticals: Retail, IT/ITES, Healthcare, Hospitality, BFSI, Education, Government; Applications: HVAC and Lighting Energy Efficiency and Comfort in CRE, Refrigeration, and Server Room Monitoring, IAQM; Recognition: Top 5 as per Frost Radar.
GHCL, formerly known as Gujarat Heavy Chemicals Ltd, manufactures soda ash which is a major raw material for detergents, baking soda and used in the glass and ceramic industry. The company has a soda ash manufacturing facility at Sutrapada in Gujarat and also has lignite mines in the Bhavnagar district of Gujarat to supply the raw material needed for the manufacture of soda ash. The company’s textile division is an integrated setup which commences with the spinning of yarn to weaving, dyeing, printing and processing of products such as bed sheets and duvets. GHCL is a leading manufacturer of Home Textile in the country with facilities at Madurai in Tamil Nadu and at Vapi in Gujarat. The company’s home textile products are exported predominantly worldwide to countries like United Kingdom, USA, Australia, Canada and Germany. The consumer products division manufactures and sells edible salt and industrial grade salt with manufacturing facilities at Vedanarayam in Tamil Nadu. The company came out with its Q3FY21 financial results and reported a marginal decline of 3% year on year. The consolidated revenue stood at Rs 809 crore as compared to Rs 834 crore for the corresponding quarter of last year largely due to softer pricing in the soda ash segment. EBIDA for Q3FY2021 stood at Rs 204 crores, a significant increase of 15% from Rs 177 crore of same quarter of the last fiscal. The profit after tax for the current quarter stood at Rs 111 crore as compared to Rs 101 crore in Q3FY20. The company management has also announced that both the business segments have achieved normalcy and its manufacturing plants are operating at utilisation levels higher than the pre-pandemic levels. The inorganic chemical segment reported revenue of Rs 528 crore and EBIDA of Rs 148 crore. The marginal decline in soda ash realisation was partially offset by higher volumes and better efficiency. The textile business division reported a robust performance with EBIDA of Rs 56 crore for Q3FY21 compared to Rs 20 crore in Q3 of last year due to strong performance across the home textile and spinning business. The company has also been able to manage its finances better by reducing working capital requirements and replacing high cost debt with cash profits generated. GHCL has recently proposed demerger of its textile business into a separate company. Shareholders of GHCL will be allotted shares in the new company in the swap ratio of 1:1, that is, one share of Rs 2 each for every share of Rs 10 held in GHCL. The resulting company will take over all the assets and liabilities of the textile business and will be listed on both the NSE and BSE. Analysts tracking the company are quite bullish on both the businesses, both the inorganic chemical segment as well as the home textile segment. The demerger will also be a win-win for the shareholders and hence portfolio investors looking at a medium term investment time frame can accumulate the GHCL stock for a 30% price appreciation.
Rajiv Kapoor is a share broker, certified mutual fund expert and MDRT insurance agent.
VIEW FROM THE