Uflex to invest $80 mn to set up plant in Poland

Leading packaging firm Uflex Ltd today said it will set up a plant in Wrzesnia in Poland with an investment of $80 million (around Rs 360 crore), which is expected to be operationalised in June 2012.

"Land acquisition is almost complete...The new plant will have a capacity of about 30,000 tonnes and we will invest $80 million," Uflex Group President (Finance and Accounts) R K Jain told PTI here.

He said the investment will be made partly from debt and partly from internal accruals.

The Polish plant will cater to the customers of Europe and Russia.

"The demand for our products are increasing in Europe and Russia and new plant is intended to cater to that segment," Jain said.

The new plant will be Uflex's fifth manufacturing facility. It already operates plants in India, Egypt, Dubai and Mexico.

Currently, the total capacity of the Bombay Stock Exchange listed-company is 2.53 lakh tonne.

Jain said that Uflex also plans to add manufacturing lines for new product categories at its existing facilities in Egypt, Mexico and India with aggregate investments in excess of $250 million over the next year.

"The company is in a process to add another one lakh tonne from its plants. With the addition of 30,000 tonne from the plant in Poland by 2012, the total capacity production of the firm would touch around 3.83 lakh tonne," Jain added.

Uflex's consolidated net profit rose over five-fold to Rs 251 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2010, over the same period previous fiscal.

Shares of Uflex were today trading at Rs 136.80 on the Bombay Stock Exchange, down 4.24% from its previous close.