Achievements
Kitply pioneered the concept of ‘boiling waterproof’ plywood in India. The unique technology employed in its manufacture has helped establish Kitply as the leader in the plywood market. Over the years, Kitply’s product portfolio has grown through several pioneering offerings.

Today, Kitply has become a generic name for plywood. The brands’ promise of delivering premium quality wood that is durable has stood the test of time and has enabled the brand to retain top of mind awareness among customers.
At the same time, Kitply has also broken the traditional stereotype that portrayed all wood-product companies to be denuding forests and interfering with the environment. The company’s commitment to its customers is matched by its zeal for environment protection. It is fiercely committed to the preservation of the environment and the improvement of the bio-resource base. As part of this zeal, Kitply has worked towards preserving the forest cover and has transformed thousands of acres of barren land into lush green forests, in the states of Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh and other parts of the country. Through its ecology programmes, Kitply has improved the quality of its business and has enhanced social and economic development of backward tracts in these regions.

Kitply has been awarded for its export performance for three consecutive years in the 1990s by the Government of India. It has also won the Indira Priyadarshini Vriksha Mitra award for its agro-forestry projects.
 
History
Kitply was founded by S P Goenka in 1982. Goenka was already a well-established entrepreneur supplying wooden boxes, chests and other packaging items to leading tea companies in Assam. Like many good enterprises Kitply, too, started as an idea rooted in everyday observation. One day, when he returned home and was sitting at the dining table, he found portions of the top layer of the table peeling off. That was when the idea of making plywood that offered Indian households a durable product first entered his mind.
Goenka decided to focus on wood products for use in kitchens, where exposure to water is a daily occurrence. He worked on perfecting the technology before launching the product with an innovative marketing campaign. The brand name, Kitply, emerged as a result of his focus on kitchens – kitchen plywood.
Kitply was listed as a public limited company in 1985. It has continued to grow thereafter; in the process acquiring several wood-product companies including Himalayan Plywood, Assam Railway Timber Company, Asian Timber and Polymer Company and New Board Manufacturing Company. Kitply has been the dominant player in the Indian wood-products industry over the last 25 years.

Product
The Kitply product portfolio includes a range of plywood, block board, flush doors, decorative plywood, particle boards and high pressure laminates, among other wood products. Since the brand philosophy is to offer value to customers, the product is available in all market segments and at a variety of price points.
Kitply has introduced several innovative products in the market including chequered, high density boards and skid boards, fire-retardant plywood and even bullet-proof plywood which is used in high security zones. Quality control plays a major role in product standardisation. Products are manufactured with selected hardwood species and hot-set adhesives that are specially formulated to ensure that they are rendered boiling-waterproof grade. The product is treated with copper-chromium boric compounds in a vacuum treatment plant under high pressure and temperature to make it termite resistant. This relentless pursuit of quality contributes to a product that truly lasts long.
The attention to product quality and innovation has led to the creation of several product lines, each of which is the best of its type in plywood products. The Kit Topline range comprises ceiling tiles made of engineered wood chips. The Kit Lam range comprises pre-laminated particle boards that can be used for a wide range of domestic and commercial furnishings, including displays and cabinets.
Kitply Fireguard is the most popular product of the brand that revolutionised plywood technology in the country. It was the first plywood that was waterproof, fire-resistant and incorporated retarding bio-degradable properties as well. Other plywood manufacturers have tried to replicate these traits. Kitply's Swastik Flush Doors are termite-resistant and moisture proof and created to last for generations. Kitply's Swastik Concrete Shuttering Plywood is used in the construction of dams, flyovers, bridges, tunnels and high altitude military barracks. Vista BWR & MR grade Plywood and Blockboard are products to produce classy furniture at economical price range.

The top-of-line offering is Kitply Gold whose finish, handling characteristics and long-life have established it as the future of plywood in India. 

The decorative laminates product Kitvista comes in a wide variety of range of finishes, textures and designs.

Kitply Curvy Plywood an innovative product made from specially selected hardwoods can be used for any curvilinear application. Kitply Royale Plywood and Blockboard, the most premium product from the house of Kitply is specially made for exclusive furniture styling and finish. 

Recent Developments
With its innovative outlook, Kitply continues to develop new products in a way that would distinguish its offering from the rest. The latter is especially important in any natural resource based industry, where product duplication is a foregone conclusion. Thus, Kitply incessantly innovates its products to ensure that its customers get to buy only the genuine article.
A key example of such differentiation from other plywood brands is in the form of Kit Stripes, the guarantee of originality. These stripes are an integrated part of the plywood and not pasted on top. While other brands just use a sticker or seal that is often duplicated with ease, Kit Stripes are integrally ‘flitched’ onto the product in Kitply’s own units and then joined to each other with patented technology.
Another initiative launched by Kitply is bamboo-based ply products. These are currently being manufactured by Chinese companies and are in extensive use in floorings and as marine freight containers. India has the second largest resource of bamboo in the world with 65% located in the country’s North East – a region where Kitply has all its factories. With bamboo fast emerging as an alternative to wood, Kitply has taken the lead and installed various bamboo processing machines in one of its factories in Assam and is manufacturing bamboo ply for the CPWD, Andaman.

Promotion
Kitply was the first branded plywood to introduce brand communication strategies in its product segment. Before Kitply entered the market, plywood was marketed and sold almost entirely as a commodity. Kitply changed the dull marketing practices and established new rules through its breakthrough advertising.

Kitply’s initial brand communication focused on Kitply’s unique qualities of being 'boiling waterproof' – a positioning that was used in its advertising in films, print, outdoor as well as point of sale promotion. The campaigns had then achieved very high recall and firmly established Kitply as a branded household consumer item.

In the recent past the plywood and allied wood industry has seen a lot of investment, partnerships and rise of many organized players. Keeping in line with changing market dynamics Kitply Industries changed their way of brand communications. In this context, Kitply, unveiled their new logo. The changed logo is a representation of growth and constant endeavour to innovate. Kitply is generic to the segment. To capitalize on this equity, Kitply decided to arrogate the category. The new tagline ‘Ply Mane Kitply’ re-enforces the leadership position Kitply has secured over the years in the plywood industry.

The brand communication appropriately changed to elevate the purchase motivation. Diverging away, from the run of the mill product centric communication – which is still followed by their competitors – to an expression of, “Homes as a reflection of your own personal style”. Kitply very squarely, re-defined its category leadership and the perception of its brand. A television and print campaign was released in this regard.

The new re-designed brochures, product stickers and sample covers have been adapted to the new brand communication strategy.

The Kitply website has been revamped to an environment friendly corporate image which is apparently one of Kitply’s vision statements. There are specific sections for consumers, architects and carpenters which enhance the brand experience.

Like many other leading brands, Kitply has also successfully used cricket in its communication to grab the attention of customers. Before Kitply attempted, this strategy was deemed to be almost inconceivable for wood product manufacturers. The brand's connection with cricket through the Kitply Super Sixes campaign for successive international tournaments had created top-of-mind recall among viewers. The association with cricket heroes, like Sachin Tendulkar, who received Kitply cheques at the end of cricket matches created tremendous franchise for the Kitply brand.

This year Kitply further strengthened their association with cricket by taking the association to a next level – by a tri-nation ODI series between India-Pakistan-Bangladesh. The India-Pakistan final, which was telecast by Neo Sports, got 42.6 million tune ins, which was 20% higher than the IPL Final. Peak ratings for the series among the core male audience was as high as 16 TVRs.. The spectre of watching a series involving India and Pak ensured high interest levels in the tournament and had extensive and complete coverage in all media across continents. As a result Kitply as a brand garnered huge visibility across the globe.