Ion Exchange set to merge four firms

Ion Exchange (India), a pioneer in water and waste water treatment, is merging its four companies under the aegis of Ion Exchange Services.

The four outfits "" Ion Exchange Services (South), Ion Exchange Services (West), Ion Exchange Services (North) and Ion Exchange Services (East) "" are being amalgamated to form Ion Exchange Services, the company's managing director Rajesh Sharma said. These companies provide water management services for other companies and have a combined turnover of Rs 28 crore.

"These companies were earlier set up to cater to the specific requirements of the four regions. However, we are now looking at rationalising these companies into a single entity as this would bring a more focussed approach, apart from bringing down administrative costs," Sharma explained.

Ion Exchange India's consumer products division, which sells water purifiers under the Zero B brand, is expected to become profitable in 2005-06. The division recorded a turnover of Rs 27 crore in 2003-04.

The company is currently in talks for a distribution alliance with a consumer goods firm to sell its Zero B range of low-cost water purifiers. The move is to push its products to the semi-urban and rural market.

"We do not have the mass distribution network and hence are in talks with a consumer goods player with a strong reach," Sharma added.

The company has no plans to be a major player in the packaged water business.

"We have leased our facilities that manufactures bulk water packs in Mumbai and Chennai to two separate regional players. And they sell it under the Zero B brand," Sharma said.

Ion Exchange also manages the packaged drinking plants of the Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation. The Rs 214-crore Ion Exchange expects to log a 20 per cent growth per annum.

Its engineering business contributes about 50 per cent to the turnover while 40 per cent comes from chemicals.

Meanwhile, the company is also looking at setting up a base in the Gulf to cater to the Middle east region. It recently entered into a joint venture in Malaysia and has set up a service company in Bangladesh.

The company was formed as a subsidiary of the UK-based Permutit Company in 1964. In 1985, it became a wholly owned Indian company when Permutit divested its holding.

The management holds about 39 per cent in the equity base of Ion Exchange.