The Hindu Business Line : BILT on brownfield expansion drive; eyes high-value segments

BALLARPUR Industries Ltd (BILT), the country's largest manufacturer of writing and printing paper, is going in for a brownfield expansion drive to jack up its production capacity to 5,00,000 tonnes by the end of 2005-06 against an existing capacity of 3,80,000 tonnes.

The expansion plan entails augmenting production capacity at its Yamunanagar plant and also the conversion of its sack craft paper unit — APR Packaging — to produce writing and printing paper, a senior company executive told Business Line.

With an eye on attaining the leadership position in the high-margin coated paper and office segments, the company is looking at increasing its capacity by around 30,000 tonnes by the end of the year. During the next year, it plans to install a new machine with a capacity of around 35,000 tonnes at its Yamunanagar unit.

Besides this, the APR Packaging unit, which manufacturers sack craft paper for cement bags and has a capacity of 40,000 tonnes, will be converted to produce writing and printing paper. The unit's capacity would be increased to 60,000 tonnes by August 2005, the executive said. BILT has a 38 per cent stake in APR Packaging.

The company has also shifted its product mix in favour of higher value paper, with the segment now accounting for nearly 70 per cent of the total production, the executive said. The company is planning to double the capacity at its coated paper units to add 1,40,000-1,50,000 tonnes and thereby dedicating one machine to coated boards and one to coated art paper. The Ballarpur unit will focus on the uncoated segment with a single machine of 1,75,000-2,00,000 tonnes.

With a view to increasing realisations, BILT has also changed its marketing approach to target customers directly, bypassing the dealership route.

The move is expected to help the company cross-sell products and identify market trends. The company has also got into retailing with the launch of Matrix notepads. This business is expected to clock revenues of around Rs 30 crore this year.

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