Eusa plans R&D facility by year-end

Eusa Pigments Private Ltd, the Indian venture of the German firm Heubach Group, is planning to set up a research and development (R&D) facility in Gujarat.

The R&D facility, to be set up with an initial investment of about Rs 20 crore, is likely to become operational by the end of the year 2005.

Eusa Pigments manufactures specialty and high performance pigments. Heubach Group is a privately-owned group of pigment manufacturing companies with major production sites in the US, the European Union and Asia.

At present, Eusa Pigments has a manufacturing at Ankleshwar. The company is also planning to enhance its capacity shortly.

"We are searching for a suitable site for our planned R&D facility near Vadodara. We are zeroing in on Vadodara to cash in on the better availability of talent pool as well as the proximity to our manufacturing facility at Ankleshwar. We are planning to invest about Rs 20 crore initially and about Rs 150 crore in next few years. The facility will help us in dealing with speciality pigments," said Ravi Kapoor, managing director of Eusa Pigments.

Another venture of Heubach Group, Heubach Colours Private Ltd (HCPL) will take care of the speciality and basic pigments respectively.

"One can not avoid dealing in basic pigments to sustain its operations. Eusa Pigments will deal in specialty and high performance pigments that has applications in the fields such as automotives, engineering and plastics, while HCPL will continue to concentrate on basic pigments," said Kapoor.

HCPL, a Rs 150 crore plus pigment manufacturer, exports 95 per cent of its produce. HCPL also has manufacturing facility in Ankleshwar with capacity of over 7,000 metric tonne per annum.