Arman Bankley speaks on his company, AR-Mine’s Industries and the different verticals they manufacture.
Arman Bankley’s venture AR-Mine’s Group of companies is two and a half decades old, which is a circular economy manufacturing company, with five plants in Goa and one each in Belgaum and Kolhapur.
The group has a diversified portfolio of Mineral and Alloy Processing, Cement Products, Fire Prevention and Bio-fuels.
AR-Mine’s Industries manufactures different verticals and products:
a. Mineral Processing and exports of minerals like manganese and quartz ore at Kakoda IDC, Goa.
b. Metal Alloys – Manufacturing of Ferro Manganese at Belgaum.
c. Cement Products: A leading industrialized manufacturer of cement concrete blocks, fly ash bricks, light weight AAC blocks at Kakoda and Kundaim. Dry Mix Mortar – innovative futuristic products like ready mix plaster, jointing mortar, tiles adhesive, masonry mortar at Kakoda and Eco sand – crushed slag sand an alternative to river sand, manufactured at Cuncolim.
d. Fire Prevention – Sole selling agency for unique fully automatic Fire one-on-one products like Fire Ball, ceiling mounted extinguishers etc.
e. Bio-fuels – Biomass agro waste briquettes, an alternative to low cost burning fuels in boilers at Kolhapur
Arman speaks on the market after unlocking of the economy. “By now, most of the industries have started running and are back to normal, the labourers have come back, the construction industry is reviving and stabilizing; thus the demand for all our cement products have restarted to full capacity. We have been fortunate enough with the pandemic as our exports to Africa, the Middle East, Vietnam and Nepal has increased, given that many of our companies who were dependent on Chinese products for minerals and chemicals, have now started exploring and concentrating on buying all their requisites from India. Our company being an established and reliable source, has bagged a good number of orders and we have been able to increase our exports from 10 to 35 percent. Looking at the trend and foundation laid through success of Vibrant Goa Global Expo and Summit 2019, we are expecting to do well even in these tough economic times”.
Arman further states that his company is fortunate to have been able to retain of all their 102+ employee families and has not laid off anyone, which was their prime target, given the situation.
Regarding the post-Covid World, Arman sees a bright future for India and Indian products. “Many Middle East and African companies have tested our products and have realized the better quality and services that we offer, thereby leading to a host of opportunities especially in field of chemicals and minerals. In fact, we have been able to capitalize good opportunities through export and networking webinars of Dr Jagat Shah – Global Network and Vibrant Goa connects and have by now, during the pandemic, added many exports and trades of new products to Africa and the Middle East. We have been able to add six new products to our portfolio during these tough times, which really gave us more time to explore such new avenues”.
BNI Edge: Arman elaborates about the BNI advantage to his business. “Being in BNI since the last 8 years as a member has helped me immensely and with connects through networking, we now have over 30 percent of our sales through BNI referrals.”
Following the core values learned through BNI of ‘Givers Gain’ and thereby being the second highest giver in the South Goa region, Arman has been able to acquire good visibility and with his integrity and quality of products. Arman’s company has been associated with many prestigious landmark projects of Goa like the new airport terminal, Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee Stadium, Mall de Goa, to name a few.
BNI has also helped to collaborate and upgrade, and Arman has been fortunate to partner with his competitors and capture the construction market in Goa; thereby connecting him with ethical partners as his dealers in all prominent towns in Goa .
He further adds, “I personally believe ‘network’ is equal to ‘net worth’ and with BNI’s 600+ referral partners, it has always been a positive association not only for sales and marketing connects for our products, but also by getting ethical vendors for my company – thus fulfilling our needs at lesser prices with better quality and service.
The COVID-19 Challenge: With the Covid situation, BNI has been supportive to the clarion call by the Prime Minister, about ‘Vocal for Local’. As a Senior Director of BNI Goa, I along with my business growth team have arranged many conclaves in the field of projects, hospitality, corporate, education institutes and inter-region with Hubli and Kolhapur and lately being a registered vendor for ONGC-Goa”.
Arman’s recent success story has been the connect of New Mopa airport through one such conclave, and his company is now a part of supplying cement products and sand for the upcoming project.
On the personal front too, with association of BNI and being a face of Vibrant Goa, Arman has gained a lot of leadership qualities, under the mentorship of their Executive Director BNI Goa Region Rajkumar Kamat, Chairman of Vibrant Goa Nitin Kuncolienkar and partners like Architect Avinash Borkar, Manoj Patil and many others. He recently had the privilege of being appointed as a director for Goa IDC Board and has to his credit, a long association with GSIA, BNI and Vibrant Goa.
Future Plans: Regarding his future plans, Arman says, “Currently we are managing well with all our seven factories and are at the paper work stage for our 8th new factory of manufacturing light weight auto clave aerated blocks. With benefits from Vibrant Goa and product demands from India, we are focusing more on super growth through export sales of our manufactured products and soon will be expanding to exports with Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam”
