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We are digitising the entire value chain

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Pankaj Phadnis, National Head – Retail, Infra.Market, speaks about digitisation, automation and omnichannel solutions for cement distribution in India.

What is the business model of Infra.Market?
Infra.Market is a profitable one-stop construction solutions company. With a vision of creating India’s largest multi-product building materials brand, it is transforming the entire supply chain through tech innovation. Our business model is quite unique as we cater to B2B, B2C, as well as B2R models. B2B services to institutional customers whereas B2C caters to direct customers via our stores across locations. With B2R, we mark our presence in various retail stores by ensuring they have the inventory of the best of best brands along with ours. This way, our products and services are penetrated in even the remotest geographical pockets, which makes our model truly unique and innovative.

What is the management tool used to manage customers and partners of your business?
Valued at $2.5 billion, Infra.Market is growing 5x year-on-year through rapid tech-innovation. Coupled with a strong team, customer-driven growth and a robust ecosystem of partners, we are swiftly moving towards our vision of building a category defining position across categories. An end-to-end construction solutions company, Infra.Market takes the entire procurement process online, ensuring quality, organising the vendor base, and bringing transparency in pricing; an industry-first tech platform in India.
We are digitising the entire value chain, right from identifying the prospective customer to the actual delivery of concrete to the end customer. Being tech-first has given us a competitive edge in the industry as we aim to leverage automation and make the end-to-end process seamless for our clients. Our tech-led platforms enable real time reporting and dashboards providing complete visibility around the supply chain thus helping in optimising the entire experience for customers.

Who are the likely customers of Infra.Market?
Making use of the idle capacities lying with manufacturers of construction goods, Infra.Market is a one-stop shop for infrastructure contractors looking for materials near their project sites. We operate in B2B, B2C, as well as B2R universe, which makes us accessible to anyone who requires construction materials to fulfil their needs. However, most of our clients are infrastructure companies, builders, conglomerates, contractors, government institutions, and architects. We leverage technology to provide an enhanced procurement experience throughout the construction ecosystem and largely focus on our private label brands. On the customer side, we aim to address concerns around pricing transparency, unreliable quality, fragmented vendor base, and inefficient logistics. While on the manufacturer’s side, it is ensuring higher capacity utilisation, steady demand, and better customer reach.

How do you store the products and further fulfil your orders?
We are available online as well as offline to meet our customers’ evolving demands. Our product line is quite varied as we offer everything from floor to ceiling, all under one roof. With over 108 SKUs, we have different product categories including walling solutions, tiles, sanitaryware, electricals, and lighting amongst others. Our differentiated model is such that we source inventories and later dispatch the requirement. We also have our mother depots located to serve our franchise stores across locations for hassle-free and timely supply.

What is the logistical plan for Infra.Market?
Logistics plays a critical role in a business like ours where there is a pressing need to ensure the timely delivery of the order for the client. Infra.Market is proud of its robust and technology driven logistics network. We have partnered with companies that leverage technology to fulfil our logistical demands where the order must be supplied to the client from the source. For the products that are to be deployed from our mother depos, we have our own logistical network. For instance, our transit mixers are used for RMC, dumpers for aggregates and sand and small lorries for other products are installed with GPS and other sensors to ensure that it can be tracked right up to the construction site. Besides this, we have also introduced e-ticketing to go paperless in
the future.

As a new mode of cement distribution, what are the challenges your platform faces?
Our product portfolio encompasses a wide range of products encompassing more than 108 SKUs apart from cement, which accounts for 25 per cent and gets facilitated by our principal companies. However, for other products, we have associations with key logistic partners for efficient last mile delivery. With Covid-19, businesses have become more adaptive to develop multi-pronged strategies and manage increased demand that is common with third-party collaboration. We have looked at automation and omnichannel solutions to fulfil the supply as we believe expedited delivery is no longer a luxury, but an industry standard.

How do you determine which brands are working for your platform?
Being a technology-first company, we leverage data to track the historical behaviour of our clients to determine which brands are most preferred by them. We analyse the demand patterns and forecast the industry trends based on historical behaviour. Additionally, we believe in thorough communication with our customers who happen to visit our franchise stores to understand their needs and facilitate well. We also keep a constant check on order fulfilment ratio and determine the nature of orders that we are receiving versus other brands. Besides this, to deepen our connection with clients, we are also tracking them on social and electronic media.

What promotional activities do you conduct to attract more partners and customers?
Being a next-generation company, we drive our efforts constantly towards online activities. The testimony of this is the number of queries we receive via our social media presence, be it Facebook, LinkedIn, or even WhatsApp. We also engage in offline promotional activities, given the nature of the sector, one-on-one conversations make plenty of difference. Our teams work on BTL activities along with connecting to architects, engineers, retailers, etc. to conduct demand generation activities. Additionally, owing to our relentless service and quality, word of mouth has been one of our greatest assets that help us get connected with various clients. We intend to increase our presence across product verticals and look at acquisition opportunities across the construction ecosystem to expand reach.

What is the outlook for Infra.Market?
Infra.Market has had quite a promising journey since inception. Despite Covid-19 restrictions, in the past two years the company has achieved exponential growth and currently has a pan India presence. Coupled with technology and enhanced customer experience, we have been able to build a differentiated offering in the country and are also catering to customers outside of India. Our focus will remain on being a tech-first with an aim to leverage automation and make the end-to-end process seamless for our customers. We are scaling up our digital adoption to create a resilient and robust ecosystem. With our industry-leading capabilities, resilient workforce, and a clear comprehensive strategy we aim to deliver consistent and profitable growth.

Concrete

Cement industry to gain from new infrastructure spending

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As per a news report, Karan Adani, ACC Chair, has said that he expects the cement industry to benefit from the an anticipated US$2.2tn in new public infrastructure spending between 2025 and 2030. In a statement he said that ACC has crossed the 100Mt/yr cement capacity milestone in April 2025, propelling the company to get closer to its ambitious 140Mt/yr target by the 2028 financial year. The company’s capacity corresponds to 15 per cent of an all-India installed capacity of 686Mt/yr.

Image source:https://cementplantsupplier.com/cement-manufacturing/emerging-trends-in-cement-manufacturing-technology/

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Concrete

AI boom drives demand, says ACA

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The American Cement Association projects a nearly 1Mt annual increase in US cement demand over the next three years, driven by the surge in AI data centres. Consumption by data centres is expected to grow from 247,000 tonnes in 2025 to 860,000 tonnes by 2027. With over 5,400 AI data centres currently operating and numbers forecast to exceed 6,000 by 2027, the association cautions that regulatory hurdles and labour shortages may impact the industry’s ability to meet demand.

Image source:https://img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/AA1zOrih.img?w=2000&h=1362&m=4&q=79

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Concrete

GoldCrest Cement to build plant in India

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GoldCrest Cement will build a greenfield integrated plant with a 3.5Mt/yr clinker capacity and 4.5Mt/yr cement capacity. GoldCrest Cement appointed Humboldt Wedag India as engineering, procurement and construction contractor in March 2025 and targets completion by March 2027. It has signed a 40-year supply agreement with Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation for 150Mt of limestone from its upcoming Lakhpat Punrajpur mine in Gujarat.

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