RFCL to set up laboratory chemicals unit in Gujarat

Plant in Panoli will be the first company-owned facility.

Attracted by the 1,600 km-long Gujarat's coastline, New Delhi-based RFCL, the erstwhile Ranbaxy Fine Chemicals Limited, is setting up a laboratory chemicals manufacturing facility in Panoli near Bharuch.

Formerly, a part of drugmaker Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd, RFCL was acquired by India's largest private equity firm ICICI Venture. Spread across an area of 80,000 sq metres, the plant will be the first company-owned unit.

"Though we have five such facilities, they are franchised and carry a constraint in terms of capacity and cannot be expanded due to space limitations. The new plant will be big enough for manufacturing and purification of 1,000-odd products," said Sushil Mehta, managing director of RFCL.

The facility will manufacture and purify laboratory chemicals like organic solvents, inorganic and organic salts, specialty formulated solutions, IP grade chemicals and specialty formulatory agents.

Around 30 per cent of these chemicals are sourced by pharma and biotech companies, apart from academia.

The plant, which will be commissioned by 2009, will bring out the first lot of products from the first or second quarter of FY10.

The laboratory chemicals business, which is growing at a rate of 25-30 per cent, is expected to fetch a revenue of about Rs 115 crore by the end of March 2008. RFCL is also in the business of animal healthcare and diagnostic products, which add up the turnover to Rs 300 crore.

The company expects to touch a turnover of Rs 500 crore by 2010, said Mehta.