The Hindu Business Line : Praj Ind export orders cross Rs 100 cr

PRAJ Industries on Wednesday announced it has crossed the Rs 100-crore export order in the current fiscal and said the company is now preparing for a quantum growth over the next three years.

Speaking to reporters here, the Chairman, Mr Pramod Chaudhari, said that the company has now decided to rope in an outside strategy consulting company to prepare a detailed road map for the growth and plan the initiatives, which will lead it towards the targeted quantum growth.

"We want to significantly grow our operations into untapped markets like the European Union, get into new and allied business segments," Mr Chaudhari said, hinting that acquisitions could be one of the methods used to achieve the targeted growth levels.

The company had only last year crossed the Rs100-crore mark in turnover and the exports milestone comes largely from the alcohol-based breweries segment

The company is also simultaneously witnessing a healthy growth in the domestic business where it has bagged several large orders, especially from north India where its market share is almost a hundred per cent in the distilleries attached to sugar mills, Mr Chaudhari said.

The company has bagged orders worth Rs 40 crore in the current year from Bajaj Hindustan, Rana Sugars and JHV Sugars, he pointed out.

The brewery business, meanwhile, is also keeping pace with the growth in the other segments with the company having recently bagged a greenfield order to set up Bhutan's first ever brewery, construction for which has already commenced.

The company has also been awarded the contract to set up a brewery in Orissa, Mr Chaudhari said, adding that the two orders were totally worth Rs 18 crore. "In addition, SABMiller has given us their modernisation project," he added.

Mr Chaudhari said that sugar mills and new distilleries are going forward with their plans to expand or set up a distillery for production of alcohol/ethanol and said the company has been working with them to develop cost-effective options taking into account the need to economise and optimise capital outlay.

Many of these players are considering the grain-based module and the company is now offering the latest technology to handle different types of grains, he said.

The company recently commissioned a 3,20,000 litres per day fuel ethanol plant in Central America for a Euro American conglomerate which plans to export fuel ethanol to the US.

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