Life In The Fast Lan

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08 November, 2014

Two debilitating slowdowns in the past four years — one of which continues unabated — are hardly the foundations on which companies can grow fast and furious. But some do — and fairly convincingly.

This year’s Fastest Growing Companies’ ranking amply reflects the sectors in vogue in the past four years. The growing energy demand from ever-hungry industry has seen five energy and energy equipment companies listed among the top 10 of the Super Heavyweights category (Rs 20,000 crore in revenues and higher). And the growing aspirations of the Indian middle class have propelled three auto firms into the Super Heavyweights’ Top 10 as well. Gaining from this growth, their components suppliers, such as Motherson Sumi Systems and Minda Corp, have made their presence felt in the Heavyweight and Middleweight categories, respectively.

But the most interesting cases are in the Middleweight (Rs 1,000 crore–Rs 4,999 crore) and Welterweight (Rs 100 crore-Rs 999 crore) categories where sunrise sectors are asserting themselves. MT Educare and Aanjaneya Lifecare represent the fast-growing education and healthcare areas. Jewellery and multiplex firm SRS and heavyweight firm Shree Ganesh Jewellery rode on the back of a surge in gold and jewellery demand as investors rushed to buy gold as a ‘safe’ investment even as other asset classes such as realty delivered diminishing returns.

Meanwhile, nobody could take the attention away from telecom where India added 659 million new wireless customers in the past four years. That demand caused the emergence of tower company Bharti Infratel in the Heavyweights category and propelled telecom cables manufacturer Shilpi Cable to the top of the Welterweight category. Growing demand for PET, widely used in consumer products, also led to the emergence of Kolkata’s Dhunseri Petrochem as the tea estate company now earns 90 per cent of its revenues from PET. Read on for some of the most fascinating growth stories—against all odds.

(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 20-05-2013)