The Hindu Business Line : DuPont India to close 2007 with $425 m revenues

Hyderabad, Dec. 20 DuPont India, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the US-based DuPont Corporation, expects to clock revenues of $425 million by end of 2007.

DuPont, with revenues of $28 billion, which is establishing its biggest Research and Development (R&D) facility outside the US in Hyderabad, has also decided to substantially hike its investment here.

Expanding facilities

The President and Chief Executive Officer of DuPont India, Mr Balvinder Singh Kalsi, said the company would invest up to Rs 20 crore in expanding its facilities in Savli, near Baroda in Gujarat in 2008. The Savli factories are involved in crop production products, engineering polymers and refining paints. The capacity expansion is being undertaken to meet the growing domestic demand, he told Business Line on Thursday.

DuPont India, which also has manufacturing facilities at Medchal near Hyderabad (Pioneer seeds) and at Madurai in Tamil Nadu for filaments and non-stock coatings, has recorded a 24-25 per cent compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) in the last few years, Mr Kalsi said.

R&D centre

Referring to the plans for the R&D centre near Hyderabad, Mr Kalsi said that company plans to increase the investment from Rs 100 crore to Rs 300 crore. While Rs 150 crore would go into creating the infrastructure, which is being built by Indu Project Ltd, the balance would be utilised for working capital, equipment and lab facilities, personnel and other operations.

While the biotech labs would be functional in April 2008, the entire facility would be operational by mid-2008. The R&D facility, to be named DuPont Knowledge Centre (DKC), will house research, engineering and patenting under one roof, said Ms Uma Chowdhry, Senior Vice-President & Chief Science & Technology Officer of DuPont from the US.

She said that 40 scientists have been recruited so far, and another 100 plan to be added by next year. The target is to employ at least 600 scientists, engineers and IPR professionals, said Ms Chowdhry.

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