Trivitron Health to invest Rs 100 cr in capacity expansion, buys

Medical device maker Trivitron Healthcare plans to invest Rs 100 crore this year on expanding manufacturing capacity and acquisitions, as it looks to step up indigenous production.

Trivitron owns a 25-acre medical technology park at Irungattukottai, near Chennai, which started operations last year. It can house up to 10 facilities. The park currently operates one factory for manufacturing ultrasound and colour Doppler machines (under a joint venture with Hitachi Aloka).

The second facility for invitro diagnostic reagents will start pilot production in October, and commercial production will start in January, said Dr G.S.K. Velu, Managing Director, Trivitron. Construction of the third facility (to manufacture modular operation theatres) has just begun.

The company also has a 70,000 sq ft facility in Poonamalee, Chennai, to manufacture haematology reagents, ECG machines and modular operation theatres. These operations will eventually shift to the larger Irungattukottai park. Trivitron has another facility in Pune for X-ray machines (through the acquisition of Vision Engineering).

All these facilities account for only 20 per cent of Trivitron’s portfolio, as 80 per cent of its devices are imported. Trivitron plans to reverse the trend – “in three years, 80 per cent of the manufacturing and innovation will happen in India as our focus is to make healthcare more affordable and accessible,” says Dr Velu.

Trivitron is on the prowl for companies and manufacturing facilities in Pune, Mumbai and Gujarat. It is eyeing the areas of cardiology, imaging and diagnostics.

Acquisitions

Trivitron is also interested in acquiring small and medium sized companies (with revenues of $5-20 million) in the US and Europe. This will give the company a foothold in the developed markets and also help bring their technology to India and other developing markets, said Dr Velu.

The domestic market accounts for 90 per cent of Trivitron’s business. The balance is from exports to the developing markets of South Asia, South East Asia, West Asia and Africa.

Trivitron is also looking to foray into dental equipment.

All this will cost the company Rs 100 crore. This will be met through internal accruals. Trivitron hopes to raise its second round of funding towards the end of this year or early next year. It got its first round of funding from Headline Capital and EPlanet in 2008.

Trivitron hopes to clock revenues of Rs 500 crore this fiscal year (Rs 350 crore).

Currently, 35,000 hospitals, nursing homes and labs in India use Trivitron. The medical device market in the country is estimated at Rs 15,000 (from gloves to MRI). The imaging and ultrasound market where Trivitron operates is around Rs 5,000 crore.

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