Juggat Pharma, a company of Bangalore-based Rs 70-crore Jagdale Industries, is looking at expanding its electrolyte business in the coming years. Juggat, with a turnover of Rs 50 crore, derives around Rs 12 crore from the oral rehydration salt (ORS) vertical, which has grown to this level from Rs 1 crore in 2004, when it introduced this in ready-to-drink form, under the brand name ORS-L.
Taking this success forward, Juggat has set up a new packaging unit at Hosur in Tamil Nadu with an investment of Rs 12 crore. This plant has a capacity of 3.5 lakh cases of 27 tetra packs per month.
This new unit is coming after Juggat Pharma earlier closed down its packaging unit in Mysore owing to space and logistic constrains. About 70 per cent of this would be dedicated to ORS-L, and the remaining for Jagdale Industries’ other packaged fruit and nutritional beverages including its flagship brand Bejois.
Apart from pharmaceuticals and fruit drink, Jagdale Industries also has interests in farms and plantation sector. Jagdale Farms in Hosur, sprawling across 200 acres grows mangoes and coconut. The company has plantations in Coorg, growing coffee, pepper and cardamom. Its ‘Bejois’ brand of canned fruit products is exported to many countries.
Juggat Pharma is among the earliest players in India who started offering natural fruit juice based electrolyte energy drink, said Rajesh Jagdale, joint managing director, Jagdale Industries.
Branded prescription ORS powder market is worth Rs 80 crore in India, in which FDC Ltd’s Electrol brand has a major share. Prescription ORS drink is a new market worth Rs 17 crore, of which Juggat Pharma occupies about 70 per cent. FDC, Merck and Mankind Pharma are the other players in this market.
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“Consumers favour electrolyte in drink form because it is easy to consume and provides instant energy. Demand for this is growing fast and within five years we aim to be Rs 75-crore player in this market,” said Jagdale.
Speaking on the other business lines, he said that Juggat Pharma recently closed down its bulk drug unit, the Associated Drug Company. “Bulk drugs no longer remain a profitable proposition for us given the stiff competition from markets like China,” pointed out Jagdale.
With this, the firm wants to focus on branded formulations, continuing its specialisation in gynaecology and pediatric segments. About 51 formulations of the company including tablets, syrups, capsules, injections and granules are on active promotion in India. While 95 per cent of its products are sold in India, the remaining is exported to European countries.
The company is entering the Brazilian market with its patented brand BotroClot. It is a topical solution to instantly arrest nasal bleeding and wound bleeding, effective especially for people with diabetes.
Juggat Pharma claims to be the only manufacturer of this haemocoagulant in India and is one of the few manufacturers in the world.
“It is a niche market. We estimate this to be Rs 25-crore market in Brazil and plan to sell about Rs 4-5 crore in the first year,” he added.