Q What according to you are the key factors that are driving a change in Sports Infrastructure in India?
There are a growing sports and fitness culture across all sections of the society and therefore every new school, residential community, club, hotel, even offices etc., absolutely wants a suitable sports infrastructure. It was just a “nice-to-have” until recently.

Q The trends also bring a host of challenges. What do you have to say about this?
Yes, there are many challenges this throws up. It is impossible that everyone will like the same sport; therefore the challenge is to provide a multi-sport facility. And with space and budget always a constraint, there is also a compelling need to use the same facility for non-sports usage as well. Any customer is always looking at using such surfaces in more than one way, thereby deriving multi-dimensional ROI.

Q   What is your strategy to tackle them?
Over the years we always had a product range to cater from amateur to professional levels. To tackle this new trend, we have further enhanced this by offering multi-sport and multi-purpose products. In fact, some of these are portable as well, so that the investment is protected in case of future change of locations etc. 

 Q Can you tell us more about these multi-sport and multi-purpose products?
One very popular choice is our next-generation artificial turf. We have over 3,200 installations in India today spanning every type of facility. Customers love it because of its versatility of usage and no-maintenance aspects. Another innovation is inter-locking modular sports tiles meant for pretty much every sport – indoors or outdoors, and absolutely suitable for any non-sports activity on them These last over 20 years; can be re-located; thereby providing the best ROI.

Q How do you foresee the growth in the sports infrastructure industry?
There is no doubt that with the growing economy, a growing sport & fitness culture, and the increase in infrastructure in general, the growth prospects for the industry are terrific. We are seeing 50%-100% growth in the recent few years and the trend should continue.