The Hindu Business Line : Mysore Paints hopeful of Rs 9-crore turnover

This Indian ink has also made its mark in the elections of the UK, Canada, Turkey, South Africa, Singapore, Ghana, Cambodia, Nigeria and Nepal and there have been times when exports have touched Rs 4.5 crore in a year.

Bangalore , April 11

IT'S election time and these are always bright and shining days for one particular company in Mysore.

Between mid-April and mid-May, one unusual product from its stables would have unobtrusively made a long-lasting mark on the democratically minded among us.

Some 9,000 litres of the special thing - voter's ink - have been sent out all across the country since the polls were announced, says Mr M.V. Hemanth Kumar, MD of Mysore Paints & Varnish Ltd.

The five-yearly business of indelible ink may be rather inconsistent but it still polishes up the revenues of the country's sole producer of the special marker.

For over five decades, the supply of voter's ink has been the exclusive preserve of this state-owned company, mainly for security reasons.

Here is no show for the private sector player.

The indelible ink, like the electronic voting machine, is one more contribution from Karnataka to the electoral process.

A boom year like this one could swell up its business by at least Rs 1-2 crore, though Mr Hemanth Kumar is cautious to say, "We are yet to estimate it as we have increased the price of the ink this year. But more than the cost of the ink or the revenue from it to the company, it is the safety, security and credibility of the electoral process that matters here."

This year, production went into top gear during January-February at the Mysore facility of the company whose mainstay is industrial and decorative paints and varnishes.

One of the few profit-making Karnataka Government enterprises and probably the only paint unit in the public sector, MPVL expects to show an estimated 2003-04 turnover of Rs 9 crore.

The election ink output, Mr Hemanth Kumar says, varies each year depending on the orders it gets - for domestic use as well as for exports.

The ink comes in phials of 5 ml costing Rs 18 and 7.5 ml priced Rs 25.20; somewhat costlier this time as the cost of silver nitrate, a main ingredient, has also shot up.

Brushing off some 2,000 competitors including giants and smaller players in a huge domestic market is admittedly not an easy job the public sector company.

Which is why it now plans to go strongly after the automobile sector and will be shortly launching its new 2K polyurethane paint targeting the bus and automotive sectors, according to Mr Hemanth Kumar.

MPVL owns the Mysolin, Mylac, Snowcem, Brindavan brands of paints, distempers and products that also cater to the automobile and sugar industries.

"Our strength also lies in the reflecting road markers that the traffic police use and specialty industrial paints," says Mr Hemanth Kumar.

The clientele includes a mix of public and private sector companies such as Southern Railways, BEML, Chennai Port Trust, BSNL, Tuticorin Thermal Power Station, IOC, Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation, Karnataka Silk Industries Corporation, the traffic police, RPG Telecom, Automotive Axles - besides all the sugar factories in the State.