Addressing the shareholders at the 25th annual general meeting yesterday he said: "Balrampur Chini Mills expanded capacity at its Tulsipur unit from 2500 tcd to 5000 tcd last year. The company is now investing to hike crushing capacity commissioned at Babhnan unit to 8000 tcd and Tulsipur mill to 6000 tcd. Balrampur's aggregate crushing capacity will be increased to 24000 tcd from 20000 tcd by October."
He said a green-field project of the same size would cost the company more than Rs 55 crore.
He attributed last year's poor performance to the absence of preventative legislation on imports, a glut in the sugar market and floods in Uttar Pradesh. Balrampur had recorded a 46 per cent drop in net profit 1999-2000 at Rs 23.06 crore against Rs 43.16 crore the previous year.
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However, the turnover had surged to Rs 393.47 crore against Rs 297.22 crore from the previous year.
Vivek Saraogi assured the shareholders that the company would maintain the growth rate recorded in the first quarter of the current fiscal.
During the three-month period ending June 30, net profit went up to Rs 10.21 crore from Rs 2.93 crore in the corresponding period previous year. Turnover during the period grew to Rs 102.92 crore against Rs 71.94 crore in the year-ago period.
Unfolding the future plans, he said the compere has decided to grow by increasing the recovery rate by expansion and modernisation of the existing facilities rather than going for further acquisition of mills.
He also said the proposed B2B portal on sugar, named www.chini.com, would soon be operative. The portal would offer a gamut of services and information to "virtually all related to the industry".
Only two directors -- Saraogi and Sudhir Jalan -- were present at the meeting. The ten-member board includes chairman K N Saraogi, joint managing director Meenakshi Saraogi, Suresh Neotia, S B Budhiraja, S Gajendran, R K Choudhury, J L Bajaj, R N Misra. Jalan, managing director of Bells Control and former president of Ficci. Vivek Saraogi presided over the meeting in the absence of the chairman.