ACC will be leveraging its 2,500 dealers and 8,000 retailers to market special quality bricks. These bricks will be manufactured by third party manufacturers who will be allowed to produce and sell these bricks using ACC’s network. The brick priced at around Rs. 5-6 a piece are said to be eco-friendly and are sturdier than their clay counterparts. Apart from lending its brand name, the company will also provide technical assistance and quality control system to these manufacturers. According to C Kurian, Director, Sales (Eastern Region), the company will charge a small royalty from the manufacturers in exchange. The company is not expecting revenue generation from the project as of yet. Monetisation options might be explored once they start seeing sales in high volumes.
ACC, currently, has four brick plants (under the franchisee schemes) in the east, two in West Bengal and one each in Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, with a total capacity of around 75,000 bricks a day. The franchisees invest Rs. 15 lakh to Rs. 3.5 crore for setting up brick plants with a maximum capacity of 30,000-35,000 bricks a day. The bricks have demand from real estate developers in both private and public sector. ACC too, has ordered bricks for its projects at Jamul (MP) and Sindri (Jharkhand).