Join Rumela Banerjee in conversation with Jose Jacob Kallarakal, Chairman & MD of Antony Waste Handling Cell Pvt. Ltd., as they delve into the company’s journey from designing garbage compactors in the late ’90s to leading innovations like waste-to-energy and large-scale waste processing today. Tune in to the entire conversation below:
Hi, this is Rumela Banerjee and joining me today is Jose Jacob, Chairman and MD at Antony Waste Handling Cell Ltd. Antony Waste is committed to serve Indian municipal corporations and address the critical challenge of municipal solid waste management. Let’s hear more about the company from Jose Jacob.
Rumela Banerjee: Many thanks for joining us. The kind of service they are providing is the need of the hour for India waste management. What is the genesis of Antony Waste? If you could tell us about the beginnings.
Jose Jacob: Like in early late 90s, I completed my education in engineering and then I traditionally how we after education in a business run family, we joined a family business. So I joined my family business where they build various type of vehicles like buses and aircraft refuelers and all that and there I developed a garbage compactor and the idea was to sell this garbage compactor to various municipality but most municipality did not have the infrastructure of workshop or operation or maintaining with engineers and all that. So they asked us why don’t we provide service rather than supply and that’s how we formed Antony Waste Handling Cell in year 2001 to provide such services where we invest in our garbage compactors, vehicles and different type of trucks and for the application and we gave a proposal for a long-term contract you know from 8 to 10 years and prior to that one of the reason I got into garbage compactor is in year 2000 as per solid waste management rules set up by the Honorable Supreme Court, there was a message going on there will be a rule set up in future and in that rule it is mentioned that manual handling of waste has to reduce. So we believed that if you get more mechanized machine there is business and an opportunity and that’s how we started off Antony Waste Handling Cell to provide such service initially it was to sell the machines then it became a service company to provide services.
And, after that what happened was we kept on growing you know every municipality liked the concept you know we started off in Mumbai municipality and then we went ahead in Noida, Greater Noida then Delhi Municipal Corporation and everybody felt this is the best option because they did not invest in the garbage compactor as well as the manpower managing manpower was a challenge and also the workshop and with all the engineers and all and having spare parts it was a challenge and our cost of operation per ton basis rate was much lower than what they were incurring and that’s the reason the business kept on for us opportunity was vast and we kept on growing and thereafter in 2008 we got 2007 we raised a private equity fund from a company named Elliot Advisors. One of the idea was now after collection and transportation next phase is to get into waste processing and that’s how we thought of you know when we are getting to waste process we need money and we raised equity and in 2008 we bid for the one of the largest waste processing facility for Mumbai Municipal Corporation and we along with a Brazilian company as JV we bid for managing 5500 tons per day for Mumbai waste and we won the contract and that’s how we kept on and that’s the phase when we jumped into waste processing projects in India and the project in Mumbai is one of the largest project in single point location if you compare with the single point location in Asia processing 5500 tons per day and that’s our journey you know we kept on growing and way back in 2018 we again ventured into waste processing with a technology by by mass burn that is called waste incineration which we say now waste to energy where we generated power of 14 megawatt we burn the dry waste which has no valuable value which has no value in the market and we at the one in Pimprichit we are producing around 14 megawatts power per day out of which around left roughly 11 and a half is sold in the grid so that’s our journey in between somewhere in 2021 we launched our IPO which is a big success and that’s how we came in the public market too.
Rumela Banerjee: It’s noteworthy that MSW generation has changed significantly with India generating more waste than ever so how different has the journey been for you versus the earlier generation?
Jose Jacob: See way back before 2000 you know those days waste were municipal solid waste you know people the tendency was to just throw the waste in the open next to the bin or any location. As years passed by when the growth path of India was going exponentially very fast and one side the infrastructure or waste manager is poor it was a big challenge for the government and moreover there were a lot of public litigation against the municipalities to improve the waste collection system and I see the journey where the waste is to be collected by gamelas and dumped and loaded into an open dump truck. We used to have 10 to 15 or 12 labors on each trucks and it was very unhygienic for the workers too and efficiency was really poor and from there we graduated into garbage compactors which you see in the green trucks in Mumbai city if you are living in and around Mumbai and many other cities where you don’t find more than two to three workers along with the garbage compactor and it is not manually loaded there’s a lifting system where manually loading thing has reduced quite considerably compared to the past.
So, hiking condition has improved, efficiency has improved in collection and transportation and then thereafter there was a pressure like you know you cannot bring in mixed waste so you got to segregate waste so those days I think somewhere in 2000 early 2000 the segregation concept started that every residence should segregate the waste dry waste should be treated separately should be separated separately and the wet waste should be separated in a different bin and that has also improved the efficiency and the processing stress on the operator so you get a dry waste collected separately from different location which is taken to a dry waste collection center wherein the valuable dry waste you know you find the pet bottles and tins and all that is sold so which is again recycled rather than going to the landfill and that organic waste which is to be dumped openly in the dump yard you know when you dump all the waste in the dump there are two pollution issues one is you’re contaminating the groundwater you know when the dirty water from the garbage what we call leachate it goes down and contaminates the entire groundwater and if there’s well nearby people are drinking really bad water which can affect the health and other thing is the gas you know methane gas is emitted which is affecting the ozone layer and as well as people living around in the dump yard they have other you know they vulnerable to a lot of diseases like asthma and all sort of breathing problems you know and what happens is when you process the waste two things is handled in such case one is the groundwater contamination is almost made zero because whatever leachate we collect it is treated and it is reused for for gardening purpose and all that and whatever methane is generated in the garbage is trapped and it is used as a compressed biogas and we produce other energy and we are selling the gas to the oil companies you know or the gas company though so I’ve seen a journey where the it is improving a lot but there’s a lot of scope to improve in pan india level
Rumela Banerjee: You’ve been given the mandate of our waste management by municipalities. Could you tell us a bit about how it works?
Jose Jacob: See municipality uh the the usual process is they uh hire top three or top four consultants so they need to make a good quality bids and the bids are called and it sometimes they award based on marking system who gets the highest technical marks is preferred so the bidding process also has improved compared to the past and they look at to get a quality operator who can execute the project and finish it so in this way pan india level many municipal corporations are sending a floating tenders and in a right they are adopting the right process with a lot of terms and conditions so that they get operators who are serious to take the work and execute.
Rumela Banerjee: We understand that there are two major areas of revenue for you pnt that’s a collection and transportation for which you have your own fleet what’s the fleet size right now and any plans to expand your capacity here?
Jose Jacob: So collection transportation what we are involved in basically is more of automatic system where when we have my primary collection through small vehicles and this waste collector from small vehicle gets into a larger compactors and from compactors it can if it is a small compactor then it will get transferred into a secondary transfer station where it is transported in a big large containers to the landfill. Presently we are having around 2300 vehicles and more vehicles are going to be added as we are winning more as we have one recently one more contract and in future too we look forward to win few more okay
Rumela Banerjee: What are the operational challenges you encounter in a business like yours?
Jose Jacob: One of the operation challenges is since this industry is new it has evolved from year 2000 one thing is challenge is to get quality manpower because we do not get an experience manpower in this sector since it’s new and it is not a very flashy business like you know what you see in film industry or some sort of marketing company where it is totally different so this is not very flashy to attract quality employees so that is a one of the challenge to get quality manpower and every time as i said any new industry it has to get stabilized and we are evolving at every phase the best part of a company is at every phase we have evolved as a company and we have rectified and we are prepared for the new challenges so challenges it is not like a cement industry or any other industry where everything has been established and it is running smooth so here we have to keep on reworking bringing new technology new ideas and as i said waste is a vast sector it is we started with municipal solid waste collection and transportation then we went ahead with waste processing with two technology which is aerobic digestion and anaerobic digestion now thereafter we went ahead with waste to energy where it’s where a large quantity of waste is incinerated and we produce energy that’s the third technology and recently we entered into construction debris where we are processing debris, the waste debris of the city so it’s a vast sector and going forward we are planning to enter into auto recycling so waste is a small sector we have to keep we have to keep always with time and look out what is the best technology suited for the country we cannot get in a technology which is established in a country based on their population, their type of behavior you know their waste generation is totally different so we have to see how those established technology can work in Indian conditions and that is one thing it’s a challenge we keep on understanding we have to travel around the globe understand how to keep up with the technology and the Indian conditions as well as even most important is the cost control so we cannot bring a technology where the cost is too high and it is not viable for the Indian conditions you know.
Rumela Banerjee: If you could also tell us about the primary costs incurred by you?
Jose Jacob: The one of the biggest cost in the starting up a contract like collection and transportation or waste processing is a capital cost we have to invest the entire capital in some municipality they give vgf funding for waste processing up to 30 percent or maybe 50 also in collection and transportation sometime around 20 or 30 percent of trucks is provided by the municipality uh under Swachh Bharat Abhiyan they can even buy their own assets uh but one of the biggest challenges uh in the startup is to invest our money in the system uh in the machinery manpower as well as uh workshops everything and for first six months it’s a cost for us thereafter we chart once the plant is operational in the collection transporting business after six months we start generating revenue in the waste processing segment it takes around two years around 24 months we start generating revenue after 24 months but prior to that in both the business we have to invest and execute the project completely.
Rumela Banerjee: You’ve incurred some facilities in the last couple of years how has this changed the company operations and added to your revenues?
Jose Jacob: The thing is we based our working is based on tipping system uh tipping fee where we charge the municipal corporation where we charge the municipal corporation based on four term basis so there’s a way bridge where uh if you are doing collection transportation of waste in the entire city we wait and we charge on tonnage basis and in waste processing also we charge a gate fee processing for processing the waste in case of waste energy we charge a gate fee as well as for sale of electricity and in aerobic and there’s another component where we even sell uh compost uh to the fertilizer companies so there are three four revenues coming from waste processing and for collection transfer is just purely on tipping fee model.
Rumela Banerjee: You have managed delivering a solid 25 percent revenue cgr and profit cgr over the last five years can we expect this to continue?
Jose Jacob: Yeah we uh looking at the industry waste industry pan india level you know you see uh presently india is producing a roughly around two lakh tons per day or maybe more and uh the about in this two lakh tons per day around 25 or 30 percent is being scientifically processed and i believe that roughly 50 to 60 percent this accounted waste being generated has to be scientifically processed collection transportation has improved a lot and many cities are already implemented so there’s a huge scope for us for growing in this sector in next coming 10 years so i believe that our scatter growth will be in the range of 20 to 25 percent in coming future.
Rumela Banerjee: Where will the next leg of growth come for Antony? What is your 5 to 10 year vision?
Jose Jacob: I believe that collection waste processing is a challenge because uh collecting waste from different part of the cities and then disposal has become a challenge you know your nowadays uh disposing waste and open is a almost like a crime where every entity is passing orders against municipality so they they are under stress to set up waste processing facility one of the technology which has been appreciated uh in India is waste to energy and i believe this waste to energy projects in pan India there is going to be multiple plant in next coming 10 years i the country will require at least 200 waste to energy plants uh to have minimum you know to have a proper waste disposal facility and in this uh huge number we uh we look at a big chunk of business and um uh and definitely there will be there as you know India’s population is growing when population is growing basis has to grow uh waste will definitely grow and it has to be scientifically processed, disposed scientifically, more technology has to come in so this business is going to grow and grow and I have 100 confident it will be a very important sector uh for uh the country uh to improve the waste infrastructure improve the civic uh quality and for which we as a company will be a good executor and will be a part of the growth of the country by doing a quality job and executing large-scale projects.
Rumela Banerjee: Can you tell us about the key people helping you execute your vision within the management team what role do they play in helping you achieve the company’s goals?
Jose Jacob: So in our management team i have uh Mr. Saiju Jacob who is an Executive Director, then Mr. Shiju Antony, Executive Director, our CFO, Mr. NG who supports us on the finances, keep on informing us and look looking forward to raise funds and how to uh have a fiscal discipline in the company in managing the finances, we have a group president Mr. Mahindra who has a vast experience in the past 20 years in various industry in waste sector especially and uh and this uh four of them will be playing a major role in the coming future and supporting the company for its growth as well as we have our HR team who uh was headed by Mr. Sunil Neve he looks after the number of employees and he he has to plan the systems where we have a proper control on hr and get good manpower
Rumela Banerjee: You have been expanding your presence across different cities and regions. Could you share your roadmap for the same?
Jose Jacob: We are we are presently growing around the MMR region of Maharashtra and and as well as in Delhi region we are trying to make a presence in the eastern regions so we will be looking forward in the eastern region uh we have got quite a lot of inquiry there in the south too we are looking at so my roadmap is uh we have established two regions and now the east and the south so we have the part of india uh it will be a plan to get more business in this field of municipal solid waste.
Rumela Banerjee: All right that’s all for now thank you for your time and thank you for watching for more such videos hit the subscribe button and stay tuned to SmallCap Spotlight.