The Hindu Business Line : TNPL to focus on branded copier, notebook segment

Tamil Nadu Newsprint and Papers Ltd is focussing on exploiting the growth in branded copier paper and notebooks as it sees better value and margins here compared to the bulk segment.

The company has been consistently increasing its range in the copier segment and its production capacity in this branded segment range is set to double in the current year. TNPL has emerged among the market leaders in the copier segment with a 20 per cent market share.

Addressing the company's annual general meeting here on Friday, its Chairman, Mr Shaktikanta Das, said exports would see significant growth as it has set a target of 42,000 tonnes this year, when it would export to a new market, Latin America. In 2005-06, the company exported 38,645 tonnes.

Cut-pack line

The company has announced that by December it would set up a new cut-pack line that would take its production of copier papers to 350 tonnes a day from the present 150 tonnes.

In the current year, the company is targeting sales of about 42,000, over 20 per cent of its current production capacity of 2.45 lakh tonnes, in this segment. Five years ago, TNPL started copier paper production with an annual output of 6,000 tonnes. In 2005-06, its sales of copier paper, what it calls the cut size, was 35,977 tonnes and in the previous year 28,141 tonnes.

The company is investing over Rs 20 crore in the new cut-pack line.

Notebook production has also seen significant growth. In 2005-06, the company sold 275 tonnes of notebooks and in the current year it is targeting nearly four times this output. It exceeded 275 tonnes in the first quarter of 2006-07, sources said.

Based on the numbers, it can be seen that at about 350 tonnes of copier output a day, the company's annual capacity is about 1.2 lakh tonnes a year. This would put it at a third of the capacity taking into account its imminent expansion plans — TNPL expects to put in a Rs 650-crore third paper machine to add 1.2 lakh tonnes a year to its present capacity of 2.45 lakh tonnes.

The overall demand for the cut size paper is increasing at about 15 per cent while that of the other papers continues in the single digit.

TNPL has among the widest ranges in the cut size, ready-to-use segment such as OS 2000, TNPL copier, Copy Bright and Classic Writing, which targets the student community, and Copy Crown, a high-tech multipurpose office stationery.

The company, which has taken up farm forestry and captive plantation programmes for pulpwood, will add 10,000 acres in the current year. In 2005-06, it had nearly 9,500 acres of farm forestry and captive plantation.

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