Panchkula testing centre plans franchisees

Panchkula-based International Testing Centre is planning to open 12 franchisees this year in the country. Also, the company has plans to explore the fields of biotechnology and herbal medicines.

As part of its expansion programme, the company is looking for franchisees in Shimla, Jammu, Dehradun, Jaipur, Bikaner, Delhi, Lucknow, Kanpur, Indore, Bhopal, Raipur, and Patna.

Speaking to Business Standard, the president of the International Testing Centre, Kesho R Gupta, said the staff would be trained in Panchkula and the franchisees will be selected after seeing the response from the market. "The minimum area required will be 5,000 square feet with investment varying from Rs 3 crore to Rs 4, crore depending on the city and location."

The NABL and ISO 9001:2000 company is spread over 30,000 square feet and has sophisticated modern laboratory for pharmaceutical, packaged drinking water and packaging material, all types of microbiological test, foods and beverages, pesticides-insecticides, pollution control (air and water affluent) and civil engineering (roads, buildings, bridges, cements, steel bricks etc)

The 70-year-old businessman who started his entrepreneurial carrier by starting up with a pharmaceutical business in Patiala with Rs 100 does not hide the fact that the company is the highest service taxpayer in Panchkula.

While the company boast of clients from Cipla, Ranbaxy, ITC Limited, Dabur, Cadbury it is the helping entrepreneurs cut their capital cost is what satisfies Dr Gupta. " With setting up quality control infrastructure more costly than setting up a new business, this is where International Testing Centre helps them,"he said.

With technological up gradation a continuous process Dr Gupta considers it as a challenging task and for this very reason I am also in talk with international research centres to have collaboration. "This very year I will spend Rs 6 crore on purchasing new machinery, an investment to make the company international in a period of three years."

Commenting on the company's expansion plan in other fields Dr Gupta said that biotechnology and herbal medicines were areas the company was looking to diversify. "I also want to open a college in Kasauli (Himachal Pradesh), spread over 3 acres of land. Though it will take me three year to actually roll the project, but I will start specialized courses in biotechnology, lab sciences ."