Kumar Mangalam Birla sees room to build a ‘new large challenger’ in India’s Rs 90,000-crore wires and cables market with new ‘Ultravolt’

Aditya Birla Group has launched its wires and cables business, Ultravolt, backed by an investment of Rs 1,800 crore, marking the group’s fourth new business foray in three years. The business aims to build a scaled national brand and become one of the top two players in the segment within five years. At launch, Ultravolt will be the second-largest player in the wires segment by capacity.

Speaking at the launch, Aditya Birla Group chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla said the wires and cables market has the structural tailwinds needed to support the emergence of a “large new challenger”, with urbanisation, electrification and digitisation set to reshape demand.

Urbanisation, electrification, digitisation to drive demand

Birla said the wires and cables opportunity meets the same structural criteria that have guided the group’s recent new-business bets.


“I increasingly see the Aditya Birla Group as being a platform and engine for new bets. We make strategic bets, and back them with the intent of winning the category,” he said.

Also Read: Aditya Birla Group launches Ultravolt with Rs 1,800 crore bet, debuts as India’s No. 2 wires player by capacity

He said wires and cables are a well-established and growing category, with structural growth drivers and evolving customer needs and technical requirements creating space for a “large new challenger”.

Birla identified urbanisation, electrification and digitisation as three major trends supporting the sector.

India is expected to add 100 million homes over the next decade, Birla said. As homes become more sophisticated, with greater power requirements, smarter technology and more complex electrical systems, reliable and high-quality wiring will become increasingly important.

Electrification will also drive demand through the modernisation of the power grid, rapid renewable energy expansion, metro rail buildout and the transition to electric vehicles, he said.

Data centres offer ‘unprecedented’ opportunity

Digitisation and the expansion of data centres will be another significant demand driver for wires and cables, Birla said.

Large server hubs require “crores worth of cabling per MW” of installed server capacity, while established data-centre capacity is expected to quadruple to 8 GW over the next four years.

“The opportunity staring at us is unprecedented,” he said.

“At the confluence of these powerful megatrends of urbanization, electrification and digitization, the wire may look the same, but what it connects is changing beyond recognition,” Birla said.

‘Hidden power levers’ give group an edge

Birla said the group’s brand, capital and scale, along with its understanding of adjacent ecosystems, could help it disrupt the wires and cables market.

He highlighted the group’s deep expertise in aluminium and copper, which he said would be crucial to ensuring quality, performance and consistency.

The group also has a deep understanding of the construction ecosystem through its businesses and relationships across the value chain, he said.

“One in three homes in India is built using our cement,” Birla said, adding that this gives the group insight into unmet needs and friction points across the construction value chain.

“Wires and cables, therefore, may represent a new business opportunity for the Aditya Birla Group, but the underlying logic and business drivers are deeply familiar,” he said.

Brand trust to matter as consumers become discerning

Birla also identified brand trust as an important advantage in the wires and cables business.

Wires and cables remain inside homes for decades and have a direct bearing on safety and reliability, he said. Historically, homeowners have paid little attention to what goes behind the walls, but this is likely to change as consumers become more discerning.

“Very few names carry trust like Aditya Birla,” he said, adding that trust would matter as much as performance.

Dealer relationships to be key differentiator

Birla said the group’s relationships with dealers and distributors would form another important pillar of its wires and cables business.

He pointed to long-standing relationships in building-material categories such as cement and paints, where dealers have partnered with the group over several years and, in many cases, across generations.

The cement business has more than 5,000 dealers associated with UltraTech for more than 20 years, he said, adding that many of these relationships are multi-generational.

“This trust is built over years and strengthens with each new generation,” Birla said.

He thanked dealers for backing the group even before its wires and cables products entered the market.

“Some relationships don’t just travel together to the destination, they create new destinations and opportunities together,” he said.

Ultravolt targets top-two position in five years

Birla said the group is making a sizeable commitment to the wires and cables business from day one, with the ambition of becoming one of the top two players in the category within five years.

“As with our other new business big bets, we are making a sizeable commitment to Wires and Cables from day one, with the bold ambition of becoming one of the top 2 players in the category within 5 years,” he said.

He said the business would seek to differentiate itself through superior quality and technology, availability and customer service, rather than competing only on price.

Ultravolt will launch with a portfolio of wires, cables and conduits and progressively expand across the full kV spectrum, specialty cable applications and broader electrical accessories.

Birla said the group’s broader ambition is to turn the opportunities emerging from India’s growing energy, aspiration and economic activity into growth for both the business and its partners.

“Power must be wielded responsibly,” he said, adding that the brand was being created “to power progress responsibly.”