Emami Biotech Ltd, a part of Rs 3,700-crore Emami group of companies, is planning to increase its edible oil refining capacity triple with an investment of around Rs 550 crore. This would help the company to capture 10 per cent of the Rs 15,000 crore branded edible oil market in next three years.
Emami group director Manish Goenka said, “We are expanding our capacity by doubling capacity in existing facility in Haldia and setting up new refineries, one each in south and west to cater these regional markets.”
The company is expanding the existing refinery in Haldia to process palm oil and soyabean oil from 1,000 tonne per day (tpd) to 2,000 tpd, with an investment of around Rs 100 crore. It is also setting up a 1,200 tpd refinery at Krishnapatnam in Andhra Pradesh for palm oil and sunflower oil, with an investment of around Rs 200 crore.
Both the expanded facility and the new refinery are expected to commence operations in August 2011. It is currently depending on exclusive third party refineries to process sunflower oil.
The company launched its edible oil business almost a year back with processing and marketing sunflower oil, palm oil, mustard oil and soyabean oil under the brand Healthy and Tasty.
The company expects to achieve a turnover of Rs 1,800-1,900 crore in the current fiscal and Rs 5,000 crore in the next three years.
Plans Acquisitions
Emami Ltd, the flagship company of Emami group, is looking at overseas acquisitions in personal care segment, said Manish Goenka, director, Emami group.
“We are aggressively looking at acquisitions overseas, including in Middle East and Europe. The target could be mid-sized FMCG firms in personal care segment,” he said.
The company is also looking at acquiring hospitals in any part of India. It is to be noted that the company has recently joined the race to acquire majority stakes in Sterling Hospitals, Gujarat, from private equity investor Actis.
Emami currently has six hospitals in eastern India and has plans to double the number of beds in two to three years. It has three more multispeciality hospitals, one in Bhubaneswar and two in Kolkata in the pipeline, with an expected total investment of around Rs 800 crore.
With around 1,000 beds in six hospitals at present, it would have 2,000 beds in next two to three years. It also has plans to expand its pharmacy chain by entering south Indian market, he added.
The company has also plans to enter into health food business by launching a glucose based drink, probably in the next summer season. It is also in the preliminary stage of launching household products like floor cleaners, repellants, which would be ready for launch in another 18 months, he added.
