The Rs 1,780 crore Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilisers (RCF) has undertaken massive manpower restructuring. The nitrogenous fertiliser major has plans to scale down its 5,500 employees which, at present, is in excess of requirement by 25-30 per cent.
D K Varma, chairman and managing director, RCF, said the company has embarked on the restructuring plan as a "cost cutting exercise to meet global competition and also compete in the international market."
The corporation will soon introduce a revised voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) which will be made available to only a few sections of employees. Earlier, RCF reduced its workforce by 70 in a VRS which was open till February this year.
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Plans are afoot to redeploy its engineers and skilled workers to the tune of 350 men for the proposed $ 1.2 billion, Indo-Oman fertiliser project in the Sultanate of Oman.
"The corporation expects to be `lean organisation' within four years, and our immediate focus is on training and redeployment," Varma said.
Besides, the company has already freezed recruitment. Following upgradation and revamping of its bagging unit at Trombay and Thal, the corporation is also rationalising its contract labour force which come under the Mathadi Kamgar Board. "The need for manpower has reduced," Varma said.
He indicated that RCF has already completed phase I of its restructuring which included expansion and modernisation of its existing unit. Considering global competition, the company has now decided to focus on redeploying manpower and brand building.
RCF is presently re-organising its marketing operations in order to improve its trading wing and building brand equity. "Our plans are to make all fertilisers available under a single window, and RCF can cash in on its wide distribution and sales network," says Varma.
The corporation is also close to setting up a new trading division.
The division will enhance its trading activity which may also encompass industrial products. RCF has already traded 70,000 tonne of di-ammonium phosphate (DAP), and expects the figure to touch close to three lakh tonne by the end of the current fiscal.
For the first six months ended September 30, 1998, RCF expects sales to touch Rs 833 crore as against Rs 629 crore in the corresponding six months last year. In volume terms, sales may touch 13 lakh tonne during the first six months of 1998-99 as against 11.25 lakh tonne in the corresponding first half of last year. RCF's total turnover is expected to jump by 25.3 per cent at Rs 946 crore in the first half of 1998-99 compared with Rs 755 crore in April-September 1997. The gross margins are expected to go up 112 per cent at Rs 110 crore for the same period.