Emami is planning to invest nearly Rs 1,000 crore for setting up a cement grinding unit and a 450-bed hospital in West Bengal.

“We are working on a plan to set up a 1.5 million tonne cement grinding unit in West Bengal with an estimated investment of Rs 500 crore,” Aditya Vardhan Agarwal, Non-Executive Director, Emami Ltd, told reporters here on Wednesday on the sidelines of the company’s 30th Annual General Meeting.

According to a company official, the plant will be set up either at Mejia in Bankura district or in Purulia district.

The location will be finalised “shortly”.

Agarwal said plans were also afoot to invest Rs 500 crore for a super specialty hospital at Rajarhat in the eastern fringes of Kolkata.

He, however, did not clarify if the proposed facility will be a part of the AMRI chain of hospitals in the city, of which Emami is a co-promoter. The company will also set up a new manufacturing plant in Assam for its personal and healthcare business. Emami currently has two facilities in the State.

However, investment details of the proposed project are not available.

Household products

Talking on the future business focus, Harsha Vardhan Agarwal, Director, said the company was evaluating a foray into household products.

“Emami has been focusing on healthcare and personal care categories. But, apart from that, we are evaluating (entry into) a lot many categories like household, salons etc,” he said.

Q1 results

Emami Ltd posted an about 33.5 per cent growth in standalone net profit to Rs 66 crore for the quarter ending June 30, 2013, against Rs 49.45 crore in the previous year period. Revenues grew 12 per cent to Rs 370.55 crore.

According to a company release, the early monsoon in June this year has impacted the growth of summer brands that contribute the bulk of the revenues in the first quarter.

Thus, the domestic business grew at a lower rate of 12 per cent.

>ayan.pramanik@thehindu.co.in

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