Page 180 - CW E-Magazine (3-10-2023)

ICC Annual Awards 2022

INVESTMENT DESTINATION

US-based Orbia eyes “exponential growth” in India

Orbia, the Boston-headquartered from the business school and working
diversified chemicals company, is hoping at the Boston Consulting Group for a
to grow exponentially in India over the few years, he returned to the industry
coming years, according to Mr. Sameer at Cabot Corporation, where he spent
S. Bharadwaj, Chief Executive Officer, over a decade working to develop and
Orbia. He was the Chief Guest at the commercialise new technologies.
ICC awards function.
In 2010, Mr. Bharadwaj joined as an
Orbia, formerly Mexichem, is advisory board member of Mexichem’s
among the world’s leading raw material Fluor Business Group. “After being on
suppliers for polyvinylchloride (PVC) the advisory board for a few years in
specialties, speciality polymer com- 2016, I joined Mexichem. Three or four
pounds and additives for PVC formula- Mr. Sameer S. Bharadwaj years ago, we renamed the company as
tions including stabilizers, plasticizers lot easier, thanks to the initiatives and Orbia, because we had far outgrown
and colorants. efforts taken by the government. It’s ‘Mex’ and ‘Chem’. Orbia is no longer
not easy to do business here, but it is headquartered in Mexico, it is based in
“About 37% of our business is in possible to do business here with the Boston (USA),” he informed.
North America, 32% in Europe and highest standards of ethics and compli-
20% in South America. India is cur- ance. We’ve been able to operate suc- Orbia is derived from two words,
rently a small business but we hope to cessfully in India with that mindset,” ‘orb’ which means globe, and ‘bia’ means
grow exponentially in India over the he said. force. “We chose this force because we
years,” he said. are a purpose driven company. We spent
From UDCT to Orbia’s CEO two years distilling our purpose. Every-
“At present we have a relatively Earlier in his address, the Orbia thing we do at Orbia is long term. So even
small presence through our precision CEO spoke about his journey from though we are a public company, I’m
agriculture business (Netafim). We have UDCT (now ICT) Mumbai to the Uni- not concerned about quarterly earnings.
recently made a couple of acquisitions in versity of Minnesota (USA) for getting Mexichem would not be where it is today
the compounds business and we are re- his Ph.D. on catalysis and reaction en- as Orbia, had it not been brave along
establishing our building & infrastructure gineering. Speaking about his profes- the way. So, what was a $200-mn busi-
business’ (Wavin’s) footprint in India. We sional experience, he said he began his ness in 2003, today is a $10-bn global
have a fair amount of trading activity for career at The Dow Chemical Company, business operating in over 50 countries,”
our other businesses. Today, we are pro- where he got to work on “developing Mr. Bharadwaj remarked.
bably around Rs. 3,000-3,500 crores, but a technology that could have a signifi-
the potential is for exponential growth. cant impact on the world”. “I was able Today, Orbia operates in the Poly-
We are absolutely committed to investing to convince the Dow management to mer Solutions (Vestolit and Alphagary),
significantly in India,” Mr. Bharadwaj attempt to commercialise what I had Building and Infrastructure (Wavin),
added. worked on for my Ph.D. thesis – a po- Precision Agriculture (Netafim), Con-
tentially breakthrough reactor techno- nectivity Solutions (Dura-Line) and
“India has so much going for it – logy to produce ethylene,” he informed. Fluorinated Solutions (Koura) sec-
the country is blessed with a young & He soon realised the “frustration of tors. The five Orbia business groups
vibrant demographic and tremendous being an R&D scientist/engineer who have a collective focus on expanding
talent. I’m really happy to see the work doesn’t have influence or control on access to health and well-being, rein-
the government has done to develop the business outcomes, even though the venting the future of cities and homes,
infrastructure and encourage business business outcomes make sense”. ensuring food, water and sanitation
activity that drives exponential growth. security, connecting communities to
I’ve been observing India over the last “That motivated me to go to a busi- information and enabling the energy
two decades, and things have gotten a ness school,” he said. After graduating transition with basic and advanced mate-

180 Chemical Weekly October 3, 2023

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