Established in 2002, RitikaaWood is a fully integrated value-added manufacturer of all products made only from Accoya wood. As India's largest timber engineering company, RitikaaWood offers factory made, factory finished European quality solid wood products such as glazed windows and doors, solid wood doors, flooring, cladding, decking and timber structures. Significantly, the company offers the only products that come from a naturally renewable construction resource and has a guaranteed lifetime of 50 years in India's tropical climate. In an exclusive interview with Timber Design & Technology, Anuj Divanji, Managing Director of the company shares the success story that is RitikaaWood.

Overview 

Ritikaa Enterprises was established in 2002, and was involved in providing uPVC windows and doors solutions to clients. In 2010, the company ventured into wood, bringing together global partners to provide world-class products in India, at Indian prices. Encouraged by the early success, the company completely discontinued its successful uPVC product line to focus exclusively on timber products and established the RitikaaWood brand. Today, RitikaaWood provides complete end-to-end solutions with wood - including design, manufacturing, installation and after-sales services. Its product range has expanded to include cladding, decking, flooring, screens, facades, pergolas, structures etc.

As the only company in India to provide end-to-end engineered solutions using timber, RitikaaWood provides a complete solution including engineering, customization to suit site and architect-specific requirements, manufacturing, installation and after sales. According to Anuj, engineering includes timber design to meet global performance standards, identifying the right solution for a specific requirement, choosing appropriate hardware accessories, coating systems etc. With the experience of having completed over a hundred projects, the company has developed several standard products like cladding, decking, windows, doors, etc. that can be customized to suit all specific requirements. In addition, it also provides other outdoor solutions like pergolas, gazebos, structures, screens, louvres, etc.

Production

RitikaaWood has a state-of-the-art modern woodworking facility at Nashik, which is the first of its kind in India and is spread over an area of 30,000 square feet, including a 3,000 square feet clean room for wood finishing and coatings. A total of 10 staff and 40 workers man the factory whilst 15 members from its team are stationed in the company headquarters in Mumbai. Utilizing the latest German machinery, including Profilcut tools with Radial cutting technology, which have been recently introduced in Europe and represents a first for India, the company is able to produce world-class products at prices in line with the Indian market. Currently, RitikaaWood has an annual consumption of wood that exceeds 700 cubic meters.

Highlighting the factors behind the location of its factory in Nashik, Anuj points towards the proximity to Mumbai, the commercial capital of India and a key port for the import of raw materials and the fact that Nashik is an established industrial town with essential amenities and economical and trained manpower. Completely dependent on imports of Accoya wood to satisfy customer orders, he adds that whilst demand is higher than supply at the moment, the company will soon be carrying adequate stocks in Nashik.

Accoya Wood

RitikaaWood is the exclusive distributor for Accoya and Accoya products in India. According to Anuj, as the company developed an interest in wood products, it began to search for a high performance timber that could be sustainably sourced for several years with consistent and reliable quality. In addition to dimensional stability, termite resistance and guaranteed durability were also key requirements for products to perform well in Indian conditions. This search led the company to Accoya in late 2009 / early 2010 and an agreement was signed with them.

Today, RitikaaWood exclusively uses Accoya and no other timber to produce the world-class products it offers. The company is perhaps the only manufacturer in the world to exclusively use Accoya, which is a testament to the qualities of Accoya wood and its' confidence in Accoya, which has proven itself over the years. Anuj goes on state that RitikaaWood is committed to building a socially responsible, sustainable business model and Accoya wood allows their customers to achieve a premium aesthetic feel whilst also adding value to their sites. To date, the company has worked on hundreds of projects and installations across India.

Custom-made products

RitikaaWood primarily focuses on made-to-order products. For instance, its trained installers take window measurements from site once the openings are ready. The windows are then manufactured, coated, assembled and fitted with glass in its factory. Fixing the finished window in the opening is the only task remaining to be done on site. However, some of its products like cladding boards and decking boards can also be manufactured in standard board sizes, with customization options to suit site requirements.

Anuj is quick to point out that through their state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in India, the company can cater to specific client needs with ease. A key differentiator is the fact that RitikaaWood pays special attention to detail to ensure the product, when installed on site, appears and performs exactly as any world-class product should. Interestingly, the company gets requests for products where other timbers have been specified but they turn down these requests instead insisting on Accoya wood on account of its guaranteed performance credentials.

Indian market

According to Anuj, Indians love wood and given that RitikaaWood is the only company that can provide end-to-end engineered timber solutions with world-class design and technology in India, the company is in a unique position to satisfy this growing demand. Today, RitikaaWood is India's only company that can manufacture Factory Made, Factory Finished European quality solid wood windows and doors. In addition, it also specializes in extra large size windows and doors that perform well under all climatic conditions. In terms of cladding, the company is able to offer the only timber that is guaranteed to last 50 years, both internally and externally. RitikaaWood provides a complete solution with exterior grade UV resistant lacquer and oil coatings, customized for Indian tropical climatic conditions. In addition, good product design, a stable timber and excellent quality coatings allows the company to provide a warranty of 5 years on lacquer coatings. Similarly, the company offers a solid wood decking solution that can last 50 years in addition to a proprietary fixing cleat system that allows hidden fixing.

Confident of future growth potential, Anuj insists that India still holds more scope for growth but that the company is also looking at other international markets. As such, he expects 100 percent growth this year over the previous year. Looking ahead, the plan is to achieve 50-60 percent CAGR for the next 5 years. In principle, the company's success can be attributed to good design, excellent product quality and trained installation teams that complement its products, which ultimately make its solutions a no-worries purchase for clients.

© Timber Design & Technology 2014