Amrutanjan Health Care Ltd (AHCL) is looking to turnaround its fine chemicals subsidiary, Amrutanjan Pharmaessence Pvt Ltd, in the next two to three years by offering contract manufacturing and custom synthesis services to pharma MNCs and related agencies.
The company is planning to partner with pharma MNCs to offer high-value, small-volume manufacturing services on contract basis, from its manufacturing plant in Alathur, said S Sambhu Prasad, managing director, AHCL.
"This is part our plans to turnaround the subsidiary in the next two to three years. We are looking at tie-ups to develop and manufacture high-value small-volume drugs including for clinical supply from our GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices) complied lab," said Prasad.
He added that the company was also planning to apply for GMP certification with World Health Organisation (WHO), which would enable it to supply products to a large number of overseas countries. The company has a four kilo lab facility in Alathur, on the outskirts of Chennai.
The company, which started the chemistry services business in 1983, has hived off the business from a division to a wholly owned subsidiary company with all its assets and liabilities, excluding land, in May 2011.
It has already started contract manufacturing services for US-based Sigma Aldrich, through a memorandum of understanding filed between the two companies.
The subsidiary has a booking of Rs 1.68 crore for sale in 2010-11. For the current fiscal year, the company has orders worth Rs 5.05 crore and have already booked a sale of Rs 35 lakh. "There are plans to achieve Rs 10 crore business with Sigma Aldrich by the end of this financial year," says AHCL's annual report for the year 2010-11.
According to the report, Pharmaessence Chemistry Services has posted a loss of 2.81 crore during the fiscal 2010-11, as against a loss of Rs 3.45 crore in the previous year. The sales stood at Rs 9.15 crore during the year ended March 31, 2011, as against Rs 4.51 crore posted in 2009-10.
TO REPACKAGE FRUITNIK
Amrutanjan Health Care Ltd is also planning to revive its recently acquired pulp-based fruit drink brand Fruitnik with a new packaging, by January, 2012. The brand, which had Rs 14 crore turnover and around Rs 1.4 crore profit at the time of acquisition, has posted a sales turnover of Rs 10 crore and profit of Rs 88 lakh in the first five months after the buy out, said Prasad.
Fruitnik brand has posted a 40 per cent growth in last five months. "The brand is only present in Tamil Nadu and we are planning to take it to Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka by next year," he said.
The company, in March, 2011, has diversified into non-carbonated beverages by acquiring Siva's Soft Drink Pvt Ltd along with its flagship pulp-based flavoured fruit drink brand Fruitnik for around Rs 26.2 crore.
It has also carried out a restructuring programme for its existing pain management business by creating three product categories and different products to address different needs of customers.
With this, the pain management products, congestion management products under the brand name Relief, hygene products under the brand Purity has been set up apart from the food and beverages segment consisting Fruitnik and the export oriented ready-to-eat products. The company is looking at exporting the products to US and Europe, in next one or two years.
It has also revived its subsidiary, Holistic Beauty Care Ltd, and rebranded it as Care Specialised Centre for Pain Management, by setting up first such clinic in Chennai. However, setting up more centers would be considered only after one or two years, after analysing the performance of the first center, he added.
"For the last few years, our CAGR (compounded annual growth rate) was at 8-9 per cent. With the restructuring, hiving off of the non-core divisions and brand building activities, we expect a CAGR at 25 per cent for next three years," said Prasad.
The company, which posted a Rs 107 crore in 2010-11, is expecting a sales revenue of Rs 130 crore in the current fiscal year. It is also expecting a 16-20 per cent growth in profit before tax to around Rs 22 crore from the Rs 16 crore posted in the last fiscal year.
