Aditya Birla Group (ABG), founded in 1857 by Seth Shiv Narayan Birla, 162 years ago, has gone from strength to strength to become India’s third largest private sector conglomerate with revenue upwards of ₹3 Trillion. ABG is a global company, having 1,20,000 employees spread across 35 countries, generating 50% of its revenue from overseas, and ranked among Fortune Global 500. The group has leading presence across sectors ranging from cement manufacturing, aluminium, viscose staple fibre, carbon black, chemicals, copper, financial services, telecom, branded apparels, fertilisers, viscose staple yarn and insulators, touching lives of millions of people daily.
Just to give you an idea how big the group really is, let me start by going through how Aditya Birla is seeped into our daily lifestyles. With over 408 million customers Idea-Vodafone is the leading telecom provider of the country, connecting us with our loved ones far away. It’s a global leader in cement, and there is a major chance that your house, school, college, bridge you use, have been constructed using UltraTech Cement or Concrete. The group is the largest recycler and roller company of aluminium. It recycles 65 billion aluminium beverage cans annually, so every time you take a chug out of your favourite soda, or something stronger, it might have gone through or might go to the Group’s Hindalco or Novelis plants. It’s the global leader in Carbon Black, in such a humongous way that every second car, truck, bike, scooter, cycle use it, not to forget, its in your ink, dyes anything that is black, there’s a big chance it is using Birla Carbon. Aditya Birla Capital Ltd. with a diversified portfolio in 12 lines of business ranging from being one of the top fund manager with Assets under Management (AUM) over ₹3 Trillion, top 5 Asset Management Company, private insurance company and private diversified NBFC with lending book of ₹447 Billion, having a nation wide customer reach in 400 cities and 1,50,000 agents/channel partners. Not forgetting ABG biggest presence is in Textiles, Grasim which has presence across value chain from pulp to apparel, with it being global leader in viscose staple fibre – a major ingredient in garments. Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail (ABFRL), boasts of having the largest distribution network in India through Madura F&L, Planet Fashion and Pantaloons, it also spans the entire fashion spectrum with 20 fashion brands coming under its wings like Louis Philippe, Van Heusen, Allen Solly, Peter England, Ralph Lauren, Forever 21 to name a few. The list goes on, but I cannot end the list without giving a shout out to Aditya Birla Chemical, Birla Copper, Aditya Birla Insulators, Indo Gulf (Agri Business), Essel mining.
Aditya Birla is big on Social Responsibility as well and actively contributes to the social and economic development, reaching out to 7.5 million people in 5,000 villages through Aditya Birla Centre for Community Initiatives and Rural Development, providing training through Aditya Birla Rural Technology Park, setup FICCI – Aditya Birla CSR Centre for Excellence, in Delhi, to name few of its reach out programs. As expected with such a prolific history, background, portfolio, the group is one the top most companies in India to work for and was awarded AON best employer in 2018 and ranked no 4 in the global “Top companies for Leaders”. The group’s Leadership program is only offered to the 5 best business schools in the country and is considered one of the best places for a Business management student to begin their career with in the country. The group not only has an important place in the country’s commerce but also in the country’s history as well.
