Anjani Portland Cement Ltd is on its way to diversification. It is setting up a ceramic wall tile factory at Kaikalur in West Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh, with an estimated investment of Rs 50 crore.

The manufacturing unit will have a capacity of 7,500 square metres a day. Phase-I involving production of wall tiles will be ready by April 2012, said Mr K.V. Vishnu Raju, Chairman and Managing Director of the Hyderabad-based company.

Phase-2 will involve manufacture of floor tiles.

Project funding

Mr Raju told Business Line that the project would be funded from internal accruals and a small debt via loan from banks. The company has already got gas availability from the GAIL (India) close to the plant.

Anjani Portland, which logged revenues of Rs 254 crore in fiscal 2011, is importing the necessary equipment from China and Italy.

Mr Raju, answering on why the company chose to diversify, said there is synergy with cement and also nearly 70 per cent of the demand for tiles in AP and other southern markets is being met through imports from Gujarat.

Mr Raju said several advantages like having gas availability, easy access to raw materials like ball clay and feldspar and a high demand influenced the company to go in for the diversification into tiles.

Further, the existing 500-dealer network in the southern States for Anjani Portland cement can be leveraged for the tiles to reach the market easily.

After production in April 2012, the tiles would be sold under the Anjani brand in Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Goa where the company's presence is growing. “We expect a turnover of Rs 50 crore in the first year of operations in fiscal 2012-13,” he said.

The BSE-listed company also has a wholly-owned subsidiary called Vennar Ceramics with a 2.7 megawatt gas-based power unit in Mandavalli in neighbouring Krishna district which meets most of its power requirements at present.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW