JK Paper, the market leader in the branded paper segment, today launched its ambitious Rs 1,500 crore expansion programme at its unit, JK Paper Mills, at Rayagada in Orissa.
With this, the production capacity of the unit will go up from 1.2 lakh tonnes to 2.4 lakh tonnes per annum over the next two and half years.
Combined with its other unit at Songadh near Surat in Gujarat, the production capacity of the company is expected to go up to 3.6 lakh tonne per annum from 2.4 lakh tonnes at present.
The Ground Breaking ceremony for the expansion work was today conducted at Rayagada, a backward and tribal dominated area in south Orissa, in the presence of chief minister Naveen Patnaik, Harsh Pati Singhania, managing director and OP Goyal, full-time director of JK Paper. The company is looking at 1.5:1 debt equity ratio to fund the expansion. With the introduction of a modern paper machine, new plant will consume much less energy and water per unit of output vis-à-vis the existing levels besides much lower emission of pollutants, said Singhania. The new machine at JK Paper Mills will largely be used for producing copier papers with Color Lok logo which has more rigorous quality standards.
Recently the company has tied up with Hewlett Packard to get access to this technology and to market its newly packaged copier paper brands JK Copier, JK Easy Copier and Copier Plus with the logo.