Pokarna Limited, a city-based Rs 100-crore granite exporter, has lined up a Rs 30 crore investment to expand its granite processing capacity and to set up a readymade garments manufacturing unit on the outskirts of the city. It aims to double the turnover over the next two years.
Pokarna, which claims to be the largest processed granite company in the country, is investing Rs 15 crore to increase its granite processing capacity to 4 lakh square metres per annum from the current level of 3.25 lakh square metres.
"As part of the granite expansion, we are installing 2 large gangsaws to take the total to 10, besides installing a 20-head processing line and a fully automatic resin line to improve the process quality and finishing of the granite", Gautam Chand Jain, the chairman of the company, told the media while declaring the company's financial results for 2002-03.
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The company recorded a 93 per cent jump in net profit at Rs 18.62 crore on a sales of Rs 100.11 crore for the year. It works out an earnings per share of Rs 30 on a paid-up capital of Rs 6.20 crore.
The board of directors of the company recommended a second interim dividend of 35 per cent to the shareholders, taking the total dividend pay out to 50 per cent for the year as against 35 per cent paid in the preceding year.
While 90 per cent of the company's granite production is traditionally exported to US, it has now entered into Greece, Spain and UK.
"With the Euro becoming strong, European market is looking up. Now, there is a good demand for our products in Europe as buyers in those countries are also looking at procuring from direct source", said G Krishna Rao, the managing director of Pokarna. The company has recently acquired four new granite quarries and two of them are operational, he said.
The readymade garments unit, which is coming up at apparel export park on the outskirts of city with an investment of Rs 14 crore, will be commissioned in October, Gautam Chand Jain said.
The unit will have a capacity to produce 1,000 garments a day. " We are planning to export one-third of the garments production, while the similar capacity will be utilised to produce for others' brands. The rest will be marketed within the country on our own brand", Jain said.
Pokarna group has three decades of experience in the textile business and they are one of the major distributors for Raymond's.