Jubilant is world No 2 in chewing gum input

Jubilant Organosys Ltd is set to become the second largest global manufacturer of solid poly vinyl acetate (solid PVA), a product used as base in chewing gum and bubble gum. During the last financial year, the company undertook an expansion of its capacity, which became functional during the current year.

The company has an installed capacity of 6,000 tonnes per annum, which makes it the second largest player in the world.

According to Jubilant Chairman and Managing Director Shyam S Bhartia, "We offer high-quality stuff to our international customers at competitive prices. This has resulted in a fast expansion of our food polymer business. We have strong business relations with leading international confectionery manufacturers. Growing demand from these customers will drive future expansion plans of our company in this business."

Jubilant also plans to expand its food polymer capacity to 12,000 tonnes per annum during the next financial year. The plant can turn out 6,000 tonnes per annum, its full capacity.

It is the only manufacturer of solid PVA in India and has around a 90 per cent market share. The company is the leading manufacturer of solid PVA globally, Germany's Waker Chemie being the largest, with around 15,000 tonnes per annum capacity.

Today, Jubilant has surpassed France's Rhodia as the second largest maker of solid PVA. Rhodia churns out 5,800 tonnes per annum, and is now third in the scale.

Solid PVA is the base product used in chewing gum and bubble gum. Almost 15""40 per cent of chewing gum is made of solid PVA. The current global demand for solid PVA is estimated to be around 45,000 tonnes per annum, growing at around 7""10 per cent per annum.

Jubilant is supplying food polymer to all the manufacturers of chewing gum and bubble gum in India. Internationally, Jubilant supplies this product to Wrigley's, Perfetti, Cafosa, Gumlink, etc.

Jubilant entered the food polymer business in 1997 through the development of in-house technology using vinyl acetate monomer. Initially, the company set up a capacity of around 900 tonnes, which was expanded to 3,000 tonnes in 2002 and further expanded to 6,000 tonnes in 2004.

Moreover, Jubilant was also the largest custom-research and manufacturing services company in India and set to expand its business through an investment of more than Rs 125 crore in the next two years, a company spokesperson pointed out.

The recently set up "kilo lab" with a total reactor volume of more than 3,500 litres is ready to start commercial production this month.

The spokesperson said, "The setting up of this kilo lab will help the company in significantly reducing the product development time for its customers.

The kilo lab has enabled Jubilant to have the capability to offer small-scale quantities of multi-step intermediates and active ingredients."

Jubilant has four manufacturing locations in India""Gajraula near Delhi, Nanjangud near Mysore, Nira near Pune, and Samlaya near Vadodara. The company also has three international subsidiaries""one each in Belgium, the US, and China.