Ballarpur Industries Limited (BILT), among the country’s largest paper companies and part of the $ 4 billion (Rs 18,236 crore) Avantha Group, will invest between Rs 3,500 – 4,000 crore over the next five years to double its production capacity.
“Our current production is about one million tonne. This will go up to two million tonne by the end of this period,” Avantha Group chairman and CEO Gautam Thapar said here today at an AIMA convention.
BILT has six manufacturing facilities nationwide, and controls a significant share of the high-end coated paper segment in India.
Additionally, over half of the coated wood-free paper market and 85 per cent of the bond paper market is retained by the company. BILT is also the India’s largest exporter of coated paper.
Additionally, Thapar said that he intends to grow the turnover of Avantha Group to an Rs 35,000 crore entity, from the current Rs 18,000 crore figure, in the next five years.
At the end of the five year period, BILT may also hike the production capacity of its Malaysian subsidiary, Sabah Forest Industries, from 250 million tonne to 750 million tonne, Thapar added.
Sabah Forest Industries, which is Malaysia's largest pulp and paper company, was acquired by BILT in 2007, thereby elevating the Avantha Group entity among the global top 100 paper manufacturers. Meanwhile, BILT will focus on growing its retail business in an effort to grow the end part of the value chain. “Retail will be a thrust area,” Thapar said, adding the company’s online B2C offering would go online soon.
Thapar also said that the group was mulling re-entering the paperboards business, but that it would not be under BILT. In 2003, ITC had acquired the paperboard division of BILT Industrial Packaging Company (BIPCO) for Rs 233 crore.
