On the occasion of the release of Company’s Financial Report Card IFFCO MD Dr U S Awathi penned a letter to all the stake-holders. In this he touches upon several issues-from quantum of production to changing economic scenario to challenges of technology. We reproduce the same verbatim-Editor
Excerpts
Dear Friends,
50 years ago IFFCO was born to become the harbinger of change for a ‘young’ Indian economy.
Since then, this young economy has grown by leaps and bounds to become one of the biggest in the world and IFFCO has grown gracefully in tandem.
From being ‘born out of change’ to becoming ‘a change agent’ we have traversed through many crests and troughs. The secret behind this has always been adaptability.
‘Adaptability’ not only in terms of the best technology or the best organizational practices. But adaptability to the larger socio-political-economic environment in which we operate.
It was majorly due to adaptability to the best technology and practices combined with the finesse of the technical team that in FY 2016-17, we managed to produced a total of 84.78 Lakh Metric Tonnes of fertilisers (43.27 Lakh Metric Tonnes of Urea and 41.51 Lakh Metric Tonnes of Complex fertilisers). For their stellar performance and environmental friendly manufacturing practices our manufacturing units received several awards and accolades. Besides this all our plants have achieved their target production, capacity utilization and all this with minimum energy consumption.
In the later half of 2016 our visionary Prime Minister Sh. Narendra Modi took the brave decision of demonetizing certain old currency notes. We at IFFCO took this bold step it in our stride and were quick to adapt ourselves to this new order. We did our level best and ensured that fertilisers are made available to the farmers across the country even if it entails giving it out on credit! Since then we have made the facility of digital transaction available at all our outlets and are even educating farmers about its benefits.
Even though we managed to post decent sales figures. I would admit that we had bigger expectations from the marketing team. This should be a tough lesson for them and all of us in adapting to change and to be prepared for the unexpected.
The silver lining in all this was that we were still able to achieve more than budgeted profit that is projected to be over `1000 Crores in such a turbulent economic scenario and the finance team needs to be congratulated for this.
I would also like to thank all the employees of IFFCO for their sincere5 efforts.
Friends, on 3rd November 2016 we started a year long journey to celebrate our Golden Jubilee and initiated a one of its kind stakeholder outreach program.
During this year I am personally traveling to over 125 locations in India and meeting farmers and cooperators from almost every corner of the country. The aim behind this effort is to strengthen the cooperatives in this country and celebrate this milestone with the humble farmer who has made IFFCO what it is today.
Lastly, I wish all of you the best of luck for the new financial year (2017-18) and thank our Chairman Sh. B. S. Nakai, our Vice- Chairman Sh. N. P. Patel and all the Directors on the board of IFFCO for their continual support and direction. I would also thank all the employees of IFFCO, IFFCO Employees Union and IFFCO Officers Association. I am equally thankful to all our Joint Venture partners, Department of Fertilizers, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare along with the Indian and International Media for their valuable support and assistance from time to time.
Dr U S Awasthi