Cement manufacturing company ACC has chalked out an action plan including product innovation to strengthen its ready mix concrete business. The 77-year-old company has lined up a series of ready-mix concrete (RMC) products to push sales. Right from an Italian marble lookalike Imprintcrete to Permecrete, Holcim-owned ACC is betting on the affluent and demanding lifestyle of GenNext to push its environment-friendly products. If used in open spaces like car park or garden pathway, Permecrete can allow rainwater to seep through for recharging ground water table.
Targeting the retail segment, ACC has launched Bucketcrete, which contains 30 kg concrete in a bucket for Rs 250. The content, enough to layout four square feet, needs to be used within six hours. The self-curing Bucketcrete is made to order and delivered a day in advance at the dealers end. The use of RMC has long been restricted to big builders as it is traditionally sold in truck loads.
Contractors doing small civil repair work have to depend on the manual mix of cement, sand, stone and water by the mason. The company hopes to change the situation with the introduction of Bucketcrete. Anil K Banchhor, Chief Executive Officer, ACC Concrete, said a market study to ascertain the pain points of small civil contractors and customers led to the launch of Bucketcrete, which can be transported like any other consumer product.
RMC is usually transported in trucks fitted with a rotating drum to avoid it from hardening.