Plywood is a well known construction material used for a variety of purposes. It is a multi-layer sheet of wood, that has been toughened to prevent it from breakages and deformities. It is used in housing, automobiles and manufacturing of furniture items.
Ply wood sheet is made from two to three layers of wood, and the intermediate space is filled with wood pieces. All of them are then glued and pressed together form a thicker and stronger sheet.
Plywood derives its strength from the wood pieces, laminated design and changing grain direction in different layers. They are sometimes chemically treated to grant them fire and water resistance capabilities.
There are broadly three kinds of plywood according to their usage and they are structural plywood, external plywood, external plywood and marine plywood. In market, you can see a variety of plywood, ranging from costly smooth plywood suitable for finishing work to more economical rough ones used for sheathing.
Now, if you want to start your own plywood business, check the following section of the article.
Why to Start Plywood Business
If you are wondering, why I should start plywood business, then the following points are enough to motivate you;
- It is a very profitable business.
- Plywood is always high in demand, as it is used for a variety of purposes.
- Getting a license for this business is easy.
- The raw materials used for the plywood business are always available.
- You can also switch to export side in this business.
- Plywood industry is growing very rapidly, and you can witness an exponential growth in your business.
These are some of the reasons why you should start plywood business.
How to start Plywood Business In India In 2023
If you are now motivated to start plywood business in India in 2023, the first step should be to formulate a business plan.
Make A Business Plan
This is a very important step in your plywood business. While chalking out your business plan, you will have to decide the following;
- Name of the business.
- Scale of the business.
- Location of the business.
- Machinery for your business.
- Source of raw materials.
- Source of labor.
- Necessary Licenses and registrations
- Marketing of your business.
1. Decide The Name Of Your Plywood Business
While deciding on the name of your business, make sure that it is catchy and depicts your business. Always avoid hard to remember and hard to spell names. You should remember that there are thousands of ply businesses, so select only such a name that allows you to standout from the others.
In addition, you should also check the domain name availability for your business.
2. Scale of the business
The scale at which you want to start your business depends upon your budget and competition. If your budget allows, you can start big right at the initial stage. However, we suggest you to start small until you get the know how of the business.
3. Location of the plywood business
In order to successfully run your plywood business, you will require around 5000 square feet of space. If you have your own land, that is the best option. If not, you can take land on rent, but don’t forget to make a rent deed and you should take it on rent for at least 20 years.
While choosing a location for your business, you should keep the following things in your mind;
- the land should be available at cheap rates.
- the place should have basic amenities like water and electricity.
- it should easily be accessible by road.
- availability of service and spares for machinery.
4. Machinery For plywood manufacturing Business
To start a plywood manufacturing business, a lot of machinery is used. The machines include;
- Debarking Machine: It is used to remove the bark from the wooden logs.
- Wood Slicer Machine: It is also known as the sheeting machines. It is used to cut the wooden logs.
- Soaking Tank: It is where the cut wooden logs are heated and soaked.
- Peeler Lathe: this machine peels a continuous sheet of veneer from the surface of the spinning wooden block.
- Glue Spreader Machine: it spreads glue on the veneer sheets, so that they are glued to each other.
- Veneer Press Machine: it is used to press glued veneer to each other, so that they are hardened into plywood sheets.
- Plywood sheeting machine: It is used to make plywood sheets.
- Automatic Laminate Sheeting Machine: It is used for laminating the plywood sheets.
- Boiler and its accessories.
- Sanding Machine: It will help in smoothening of plywood sheets.
So, these were some important machines that you require to run your plywood business. There are different vendors from whom you can buy these machines. You can even order them online at indiamart, tradeindia and alibaba.
5.Source of raw material
The raw materials that are needed for your business are wood, glue, other chemicals for imparting heat resistance and water resistance to the plywood.
6. Licenses and registration for your plywood business
In India, you will require the following licenses and registrations for your plywood business;
Udyam Registration: This registration will give Aadhar for your business. If you want to avail benefits, cheap loans and subsidies under different schemes of government, then you must register yourself with Udyam.
GST registration; This is very important for your business. It will help you in filling taxes in time.
No pollution certificate: you will also require to get a pollution within limits certificate from the local pollution board.
Registrations with electricity board: Since you will require electricity to run your business, hence registration with the local electricity board is mandatory.
Trademark Registration: By registering your trademark, you will be able to safeguard your business from copycats.
BIS Certificate: You will also need to get a BIS certificate to assure customers of the good quality of your products. It is issued by Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS).
7. Marketing of plywood business
This is a very important step for your success in the plywood business. Since there are hundreds of plywood manufacturers, you will have to carry out extensive and smart marketing for your business. You can do marketing for your business by following the steps given below:
- Print your business name on every plywood sheet.
- Initially focus on just one variant of plywood, and let that create havoc in the market.
- Rope in the carpenters, architects and furniture makers and motivate them to use your plywood.
- Don’t miss to participate in government and non government projects.
- Create your website, where customers can directly order from you. It will cut the costs and make you competitive.
- Run social media and print media ad campaigns about your business. It will lead to more reputation and sales.
So, these were some ways through which you can do marketing of your plywood business. You should remember to maintain your quality. Nothing apart from this will help you more to stay longer in the business.
Plywood Factory Setup Cost In India
The setup cost in plywood business depends upon the scale at which you want to start it. It also depends upon the cost of land, cost of labor and availability of raw materials in your area.
If you are starting at a smaller scale, you will require a capital of around 50 lakh rupees, and in case you want to start it big, it will cost you around 3 crore rupees. It is excluding the cost of land.
In case, you don’t have all the capital with you, you can easily get a loan from any nearest bank. In addition, you can also avail benefits of various state level and national level government schemes.
Is Plywood Business Profitable
Yes, plywood business is very profitable in nature. It is profitable both for the manufacturers, retailers as well as the wholesalers.
Plywood Business Profit Margin
In general, the profit margin in ply manufacturing business varies from 15% to 25%, depending upon the scale of your business, the machines you use and the competition in the market.
Total cost in manufacturing 1 square metre of common plywood is about 130 Rs, and the same is sold at around 150 rupees. In this way, the total profit is around 15%.
The factors that make ply business profitable are as under:
- surge in housing and construction industry.
- Versatility and variability of plywood.
- large use case of plywood.
The entrepreneurs who have set up ply manufacturing business have reaped good profits.
Man Power required For Plywood Factory Business
To run your ply manufacturing business smoothly, you will require at 15-40 persons. They will include both the skilled and unskilled workforce. They will comprise of machine operators, mechanic, accountant and unskilled labourers.
Ply wood Manufacturing Process, Step By Step.
Now that you have studied all the aspects of the ply making business, it is time to learn how ply is manufactured in a factory. The steps for manufacturing ply in a factory are:
- Debarking of logs.
it is the first step and here bark is removed from the wooden logs.
- Cutting of wooden logs.
In this step, the debarked wooden logs are cut into sections of suitable size. the size is 8 ft-4 in (2.5 m) to 8 ft-6 in (2.6 m). Such sections are called peeler blocks.
- Treatment of peeler blocks.
the peeler blocks are now soaked into water for about 10-40 hours.
- Peeling.
the treated peeler blocks are now put in peeler lathe. The peeler peels a continuous sheet of veneer from the block.
- Cutting the veneer
the veneer are now cut into suitable sizes.
- Drying.
the cut veneer are now dried until they have only 6% of moisture left in them.
- Stacking together of veneer sheets.
the veneer sheets are now glued together to form plywood sheets. The number of veneer sheets glued together depends upon the desired thickness of the sheet. the sheets are glued such that the grains of the sheets are mutually perpendicular to each other.
- pressing and cutting
the glued sheets are now pressed and cut into perfect sizes.
This is the complete process of ply manufacturing in a factory.
Products Manufactured at Plywood factory
Plywood factory is used for manufacturing a variety of goods. They are tabulated below;
| S. No | Item |
|---|---|
| 1 | wooden plywood |
| 2 | bamboo plywood |
| 3 | wooden products like wooden boards |
| 4 | plastic faced plywood |
| 5 | medium density fiberboard |
| 6 | particle boards |
| 7 | roof trusses |
| 8 | wood chips |
Pros and Cons of Plywood Business
The whys and Why nots of this business are discussed below;
| Why to start | Why not to start |
|---|---|
| Evergreen business | Requires huge capital |
| Profitable business | Has good maintenance and management costs |
| Rising in demand | Competition from big players |
So, this was all about plywood business in India in 2023. We are sure that you would have loved reading this article. If you did, kindly share it with your friends.
Also Check: How to start Slipper Making Business in 2023
FAQs on plywood manufacturing business
Plywood business is a very profitable business for retailers, wholesalers as well as manufacturers. If you are a manufacturer, you can earn a profit margin of 15% to 25%. In this way, if you are selling good quantities of plywood, you are for sure going to earn lakhs in profit.
Yes, plywood business is profitable in nature. The reasons behind its profitability are surge in housing and construction sector, multi purpose nature of plywood and it being a cheap alternative of other construction materials. Ply business is profitable for retailers, wholesalers as well as the manufacturers. If either of them is doing good sales, it will translate to lakhs of rupees in profit.
You should start plywood business because 1. It is profitable in nature, 2. it is an evergreen business and its demand increases with every passing day, 3. the raw materials are readily available and because getting licenses and registrations, and subsidies for this business is very easy.