Coromandel Fertilisers Limited (renamed as Coromandel International Limited), the flagship company of Chennai-based business conglomerate Murugappa Group, will be expanding its retail store chain ‘Mana Gromor’, besides foraying into the food output business. With 430 ‘Mana Gromor’ stores in Andhra Pradesh at present, there are plans to replicate this model in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Maharashtra.
“We will roll out 100 stores in these three states in due course. Our target is to have 1,000 stores across the four states in the next two years,” Coromandel International Limited chairman, A Vellayan, said.
“At the request of farmers, we are planning to foray into food output business – procuring pulses, spices and other foodgrains from the farmer’s gateway, pack and supply them to retail chains. We are currently testing this model and it will take a couple of years for this to materialise,” he said, adding the company was aiming to achieve Rs 10,000 crore in revenues in the next five years, from the current Rs 6,300 crore.
The company, as part of its over Rs 1,500-crore expansion over the next two to three years, is also looking at growing its pesticides business through both organic and inorganic routes.
“Our pesticides business is relatively small and the current level of revenues from this is Rs 350 crore. We intend to add some more muscle to this and are looking at treading the inorganic growth path. We have already identified a couple of companies for acquisition and the proposed investment towards this will be anywhere between Rs 600 crore and Rs 700 crore. Our goal is to clock revenues of Rs 1,500 crore from our pesticide business in the next two years through inorganic growth,” Vellayan added.
Coromandel International also intends to strengthen its supply chain and multiply value with a new JV for ammonia supply. It has earmarked Rs 500 crore for this purpose. Vellayan said the company was looking at forming a JV in a country where gas was surplus for production of ammonia.
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“The ammonia plant will have a 600,000 tonne capacity. It will take about 28 months to establish this facility and we will have a clear idea about the location of the plant by January. The company has around Rs 350 crore worth of non-performing assets, which it will use to part fund the expansion. We will also look at various other options, and if necessary will dilute some stake, from the currently 65 per cent,” Vellayan said.
Also on the cards is setting up of a facility in Visakhapatnam at a cost of Rs 2 crore to handle municipal dump and convert that into compost. “The plant will have a capacity of 40,000 tonne a year and will be up and running in the next seven months,” he added.