Magicrete: Building An Alternative Reality

When Sourabh Bansal received an unusually large order of lime from Siporex, a manufacturer of bricks and construction blocks in Pune, he was intrigued. Why non-executive director of Raw Edge, a Surat-based company that supplies chemicals and minerals to industrial manufcturers. While investigating the reason behind Siporex's large order, he came upon a nascent market: Autoclaved aerated concrete (AAC) building blocks, a stronger and more sustainable alternative to clay bricks.

He started researching the brick market and realised that, barring three or four manufacturers, the vast majority of India uses the labour-intensive method of baking clay bricks in kilns. After steel and cement, bricks are the most consumed building material in India, and make up a Rs 50000-crore market, which is a largely unorganised.

Bansal started Magicrete in 2008 to manufacture and sell concrete blocks which, he believes, are more effective than clay bricks. The company generated revenues of about Rs 135 crore for FY2014, an increase of 35 percent from the last financial year.

In January 2014, it became the largest producer of AAC blocks in India, claims Bansal. In Mumbai, it has supplied blocks to Sofitel Hotel at the Bandra - Kurla Complex, Indiabulls' buildings in Lower Parel, among others.


The man behind it
Sourabh Bansal(30) and his father Bimal, who founded Raw Edge, share an entrepreneurial streak. The younger Bansal - an IIT - Kharagpur alum - sensed an opportunity in manufacturing AAC blocks, and wanted to improve efficiency in the construction sector. Bansal's research showed that AAC blocks were profitable in China. (Prefabricated blocks, an upgrade from AAC, are now used in uropean Union nations and the US.)

After Rs 20 crore from angel investor Rajesh Poddar, Bansal got the technology to manufacture these blocks from China. And within a year of getting Siporex's large order, Magicrete was up and running.