Page 48 - Kolte Patil AR 2019-20

How Kolte-Patil has
built its business
Positioning
We operate like a manufacturing Company rather than running our business like a conventional real estate Company. This focus makes us independent of a conventional obsession with land ownership. The result is that we have increasingly selected to enter into agreements
where the partner brings developable land to the table while we bring the power of our brand, knowledge and competence.
Operational footprint
We are engaged in a business where the need
for lifestyle-supported apartments is virtually in every part of the country. However, we largely believed that real estate development was a localised business; it is only in the last few years that we cautiously extended our presence from Pune to Mumbai and Bengaluru (even as Pune accounted for 91% of our sales in FY20).
Governance
We believe that in a business where we generally sell dreams, there is a premium on the ability to not just market with credibility but to run the business in a holistically credible manner (governance). This holistic approach comprises the fusion of ethics, processes, policies and protocols that make our responses to routine issues predictable.
Technology edge
We stayed ahead of the curve through investments in construction-accelerating technologies - Mivan shuttering technology, Aluform technology from Korea, adhesive technology from Italy, waterproofing technology from Germany and pre-fabricated door technology from Japan, accelerating construction speed and quality. We also invested in cutting-edge information technology tools (SAP implementation and advanced CRM) resulting in informed decision-making. We were one of the first in India’s real estate sector to implement advanced CRM SAP-based ERP.
Brand
We believe that the most valuable property that we own is ironically not even visible on the Balance Sheet. Over the decades, the credibility with which we have run the Company has generated the ‘trustmark’ recall for our Company. We market properties under the ‘Kolte-Patil’ brand (mid- priced segment) and ‘24K’ (premium luxury), making us relevant for customer needs from as low as C30 Lakh to as high as C5 Crore.
Broad-based portfolio
We have evolved from the construction of standalone residential buildings to the development of full-fledged residential complexes, integrated townships, commercial complexes
and IT parks (saleable area of more than 20 million square feet across Pune, Mumbai and Bengaluru). The highlight of our portfolio has been the Life Republic township (390 acres), currently home to 11,000+ residents and likely to be in various phases of completion for at least another decade.
Asset-lightness
We entered the business through asset-heavy investments but over time have graduated to being
as asset-light as possible through joint ventures and society redevelopment projects, making us independent of land ownership and extended construction cycles. We have generally monetised projects around shorter paybacks, faster cash flows, strong working capital management and higher returns.
Customer focus
We are focused on affordable and mid-priced housing, which is seeing the strongest traction in the Pune, Mumbai and Bengaluru markets. We believe that this segment is largely user-driven, stable, marked by low installment deferments and likely to keep growing.
Partnerships
We entered into partnerships with marquee financial institutions where they selected to own equity in specific projects.
46 | Kolte-Patil Developers Limited