The Hindu Business Line : Exide plans Rs 400-cr investment for doubling capacity

MR T.V. RAMANATHAN, Managing Director and COO, Exide Industries, along with Mr S.B. Ganguly, outgoing Chairman, at a press conference in Kolkata on Saturday. — A. Roy Chowdhury

Kolkata April 21 Exide Industries will be investing close to Rs 400 crore in the next three years to double capacity. Of the total investment, Rs 150 crore will be spent in this fiscal alone.

"We are planning to double our turnover and net profit in the next three years," the outgoing chairman, Mr S.B. Ganguly, told newspersons here on Saturday.

Though he is relinquishing the office of chairman and CEO on May 1, he will continue as the chairman of Exide's Sri Lankan outfit and will also be a director on the board of ING Vysya Life Insurance in which Exide holds 49 per cent. On discussions over possible acquisitions or joint venture opportunities in Germany and Australia, however, the company is yet to take a call on the same.

Lead prices

On lead prices, Mr Ganguli said that lead constitutes 70 per cent of the input costs of Exide and that the present uptrend (in prices) was cause for concern. Lead prices have increased by over 40 per cent in the last one year.

Rural market

Mr T.V. Ramanathan, Managing Director and COO of the company, said during the last one year the company has focused on capturing the rural market with tractor and inverter batteries.

"While we are a market leader in the OE segment of tractor batteries, we had little presence in the replacement market until very recently. The trend was reversed during the last fiscal and we have enhanced our market share in the rural replacement sales of tractor batteries from 2 to 8 per cent. We are now selling 1.5 lakh such batteries and are hopeful of doubling the same with a market share of 15 per cent in three years," Mr Ramanathan said.

In the inverter battery segment, Exide has developed new long-life products. "The new products are designed keeping in mind the comparatively growing inconsistent power supply situation in rural India," he said.

Note of regret

Having steered the company to achieve over 10 times growth as an undisputed market leader during his stint as chairman and CEO for over 13 years, Mr Ganguly regrets not being able to make Exide as the best quality manufacturer.

"I always looked up to the Japanese manufacturers on quality issues and I aspired for Exide to cross that benchmark. However, I regret we are yet to achieve that," he said, when asked whether he had any regrets while hanging up his boots.

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