ZHuzoor is poised to revolutionise the construction market by providing all necessary construction products from all approved manufacturers at best-in-class rates, says Raghav Beriwala, Director of ZHuzoor Infratech Pvt. Ltd. and Shyam Steel Industries Limited.

With 70+ years of rich legacy at Shyam Steel Group in the TMT industry, what do you think the challenge is for infrastructure customers?

Having catered to infrastructure companies of all sizes over years, we at Shyam Steel, understand the difficulty faced by infrastructure companies in the procurement of materials. The infra companies face several hurdles including the unavailability of major construction materials like TMT, structural steel, pipes, crash barriers, construction chemicals, etc. from a single vendor. Secondly, the transportation and handling of procured materials to the site remain a huge bottleneck and directly hamper the site’s progress. Another critical factor is, small and medium-sized contractors are unable to buy materials in advance as their cash flow depends on the end client, and the financial institutions do not offer viable credit facilities to them.

Above all these, there is a huge lack of trust in this sector; these contractors are deceived in many ways in terms of delivery timelines, quality, payment, etc., and hence they need a trustworthy, capable, and expert vendor. Apart from these, there are several other issues that the contractors face regularly.

ZHuzoor is poised to revolutionise the construction market by providing all necessary construction products from all approved manufacturers (both primary and secondary) of the best quality at the best possible rate under one roof to the customer site with conducive payment terms and flexible delivery options. Tell us a bit more about

Zhuzoor Infratech and why you claim it will bring a revolution to the construction ecosystem.

ZHuzoor Infratech Private Limited is a new-age marketplace for construction materials, providing all construction materials under one roof. The company takes orders from all business customers (infrastructure contractors, builders, etc.) for construction materials like TMT bar, structural steel, pipes, crash barriers, construction chemicals, bitumen, construction equipment, etc. of any brand and fulfils them by sourcing from primary as well as secondary manufacturers and established traders. We are a one-stop solution for construction-related needs for our customers. We aim to destress the customers in terms of working capital by providing them with materials against credit terms (LC and BG). The customers have visibility into material movement and all necessary customer-related information through our dedicated customer website and application. This is a stepping stone for the digital revolution in the construction industry.

What are the products you are dealing with?

Zhuzoor presently deals in all grades of TMT Bar, all types of structural steel, pipes (ductile iron, ERW, seamless, section, SAW, etc.), W-Beam and Thrie Beam Crash Barriers, scaffolding and shuttering materials, bitumen, construction chemicals, etc. Along with this, we also undertake inspection and testing services for infrastructure and construction projects. Nevertheless, we are in the process of expanding our reach to all other materials needed for construction activities. This includes iron ore pellets, AAC blocks, and other raw materials, as well as finished products. For example, when a customer reached out to us for iron ore pellets or, say, AAC blocks, we sourced those for them. Our motto is to resolve pain points for our customers in the infrastructure segment. Also, we understand that digitisation is an extremely important aspect of this industry. To digitally enable the operations or processes of a technologically unorganised infrastructure segment, we have come up with several extremely useful pieces of software, like a project management system, a human resource management system, a customer relationship management system, enterprise resource planning, a customer application across sectors, etc., along with hardware from reputed brands. We are replicating or acting on behalf of the procurement division of infrastructure contractors.

What is the customer feedback you received during your operation during the last financial year (2022– 2023)?

I believe action speaks louder than words, and as a testimony to our organisation’s performance, I am proud to say that within 10 months of starting operation, we have successfully dispatched 30000+ tonnes of TMT bars, 5000+ tonnes of structural steel, 2 lakh+ metres of DI pipes, and metal beam crash barriers, etc. to 60+ infrastructure contractors of various scales and capacities. Our clients are excited as they get a competitive price through bulk buying for the best quality material in exchange for conducive payment terms, followed by prompt, time-bound delivery.

What are the main drivers for this phenomenal business growth in such a short time, and what are the key value additions to the customers?

In such a short time, we have successfully set up a network of renowned manufacturers: both primary and secondary players in TMT and structural steel, all prime vendors in several pipes and metal beam crash barriers, multiple reputed brands in other categories, etc. This means that we have a wider base of vendors, and hence, we can find rock-bottom prices for them through bulk buying. Also, these contractors do not need to rush to various vendors at every nook and cranny of the country; instead, we are doing the same on their behalf. To ensure fast delivery, we have established our network of transporters on a pan-India basis. We believe in human capital and have employed industry-leading sales and procurement professionals who, in turn, help our customers.

Last and most importantly, we aim to digitise our operations and systems and have been successful in doing a considerable part of it. Today, we have developed in-house an integrated sales and procurement module to bring transparency to the whole process and make it more efficient. This is the first of its kind in the industry as well as the country and has been developed by our group company, Shyam Future Tech. The beauty and the point that we leverage is the group ecosystem, where any group company enjoys the learning curve, processes, and data of another group company; this places us in a unique position. Hence, we consider digitisation as one of the most important drivers of growth.

It sounds interesting and exciting. What is the target for Zhuzoor in the upcoming financial year?

This year’s target for us is to find more ways to help our customers. This country has a huge concentration of infrastructure contractors, and our next target is obviously to reach more and more of those infrastructure contractors who are in need. I take this opportunity to request that all purchase managers reach out to us with their problems; we will try our best to solve the same.

For more details visit: https://zhuzoor.com/