Tata Coffee Ltd has inaugurated a premium coffee extraction plant at Theni

Tata Coffee Ltd has inaugurated a premium coffee extraction plant at its instant coffee manufacturing facility in Theni, Tamil Nadu.

The new extraction plant will help the company position its freeze dried coffee product at premium levels and increase its overall capacity by 30 per cent. 

The technology installed will enable the plant to produce and export premium coffee to consumers across the globe.

Tata Coffee's instant coffee division is located 170 km from Tuticorin port. This facility is a 100 per cent EOU (Export Oriented Unit) with an installed capacity of 4,000 tonnes per annum.

The plant produces and exports spray dried, agglomerated and freeze dried instant coffee. The new extraction plant will add 2,000 tonnes to the existing capacity.

Hameed Huq, Managing Director, Tata Coffee, said: "Tata Coffee has continuously moved up the value chain in its plantations businesses and in instant coffee. Our expertise in the bean to brew value chain, efficient processes and focus on sustainability have helped us maintain a strong leadership position in the coffee business. The expansion of our Theni instant coffee facility illustrates our strong commitment to providing world-class premium coffees to our customers worldwide."

Unilever to set up Rs 360 Cr Unit in Khamgaon

Unilever today announced that it is investing €50 million to set up its first Asian aerosol deodorant manufacturing facility in Khamgaon, Maharashtra.

The company said that it has used the visit of British Prime Minister David Cameron to its Hindustan Unilever business in Mumbai to announce that it is investing €50 million to set up the unit.

This investment complements the €70 million committed to building new homecare liquids and distribution facilities in Thailand announced last week and €75 million to build a new home are factory and expanding the existing manufacturing plants in South Africa announced at the end of January.

Pier Luigi Sigismondi, Chief Supply Chain Officer, Unilever, said: "Unilever's supply chain is central to the company's delivery of consistent, sustainable and profitable growth. This investment in India is part of our broader expansion plans to help us achieve our ambition of doubling our business, whilst halving our environmental impact.''

The Khamgaon plant is one of the 30 new factories being built by the company by 2015. Investment in Khamgaon will be phased over three years and the production capacity will be gradually scaled up to generate direct employment for over 150 people and indirect employment for about 200 people.

The plant will service demand from India and across South East Asia including Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and Vietnam.

The plant will utilise the latest technologies to maximise energy efficiency and reduce waste water to zero. This is in line with Unilever's goal of reducing water usage in manufacturing.

Its Indian unit, Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL), has reduced water usage in its manufacturing operations by 10 per cent in 2012 compared with 2010.

Schmersal India to set up Ranjangaon plant

Schmersal India is setting up a manufacturing facility at Ranjangaon, near Pune in Maharashtra with an investment of 8 million euro. It will produce safety devices, lift switchgear and electronic sensors which finds applications in machinery serving food, pharma and other FMCGs. The plant is expected to go operational in 2013. It may be noted, Schmersal India is a 100% subsidiary of German based Schmersal group.



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ITC to set up its second noodle manufacturing plant in Kolkata

ITC has set up its second manufacturing unit for Sunfeast Yippee Noodles in Kolkata in partnership with city-based Keventer Group. The proposed Rs 50 crore plant with a capacity to manufacture 50 tonnes of instant noodles per day will be the second such plant for noodles in the country. 

The technology for the plant is sourced from Japan and Taiwan and is capable of packing 450 packets per minute. 

""This investment is part of ITC's overall plan for developing West Bengal's economic capacity through our vibrant and high quality driven foods business,"" says Kurush Grant, executive director at ITC Ltd. 

""West Bengal has been home to ITC's headquarter for over a century, and we have also established several manufacturing plants that create value for the state. ITC's packaged food products with brands such as Aashirvaad, Sunfeast, Bingo! and Yippee! are gaining market share,"" said Grant. 

Keventer also announced its plans to set up a food safety laboratory in its Kolkata facility at an investment of Rs 35 crore. The laboratory will operate under the name of Edward Food Research and Analysis Centre and is an approved project by the ministry of food processing industries.

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Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to set up new sunsidiary for power sector

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries plans to set up a new subsidiary in India to cater to the rapidly growing power generation market in India. The subsidiary, Mitsubishi Power Systems India, will be Mitsubishi's fourth regional base to oversee its power business.

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Indian Food Processing Industry to touch $320bn by 2015

The Indian food processing industry is expected to reach USD 320 billion by 2015 and there is a need to create a conducive climate to attract investments in this sector, an industry official said today. 

"There is a need to attract investment in India's food sector, which is estimated to grow at USD 320 billion by 2015. The food processing sector will account about 40-50 per cent", Kancor Ingredients Ltd Managing Director Sanjay Mariwala said. 

Mariwala, who is also Chairman of the ninth edition of "Foodpro 2011" organised by CII, said there are over 25,000 registered units in the food sector with investments of Rs 84,000 crore. 

He said many issues like high cost of packaging,preferences for fresh food and lack of infrastructure were some of the challenges faced by the industry. 

Earlier, Chairman and Managing Director of fruit drink concentrate maker Rasna Private Ltd Piruz Khambatta said there was need to make food sector eligible to avail priority sector lending from banks and exempt food processing industry from the Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) Act. 

He suggested that Central and State governments partner the food processing industry and offer processed foods to school students through mid-day meal programmes. 

Around 170 companies with various equipment to food processing industry and allied sectors are participating in the two day event.

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Ice-Cream maker Vadilal Industries Expansion-Cum-Modernisation Plan

With its Rs 80-crore expansion-cum-modernisation plans completed, Vadilal Industries Ltd, India's second largest ice-cream maker after Amul, is all set to increase its production capacity from the existing 2.25 lakh litres per day to 3.25 lakh litres at its two manufacturing plants in Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh, from Friday.

The Rs 40-crore expansion at each of the plants — Pundhra in Gandhinagar district and Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh — has been carried out with internal accruals and borrowings, Mr Rajesh Gandhi and Mr Devanshu Gandhi, both Managing Directors, told presspersons here today.

The 80-year-old company has also set up India's fastest cone-making machine with a capacity of 18,000 cones an hour, as against 6,000 in the case of the existing machines. Since 60 per cent of sales come from cups, cones and candies, Vadilal plans to increase its share in the organised market from the current 20 per cent to 24 per cent by focusing on these as also small-value packs which are new growth drivers. Its candy-making capacity, 15 lakh pieces per day, is the largest in India.

With a view to achieving a growth of 40 per cent, as against the industry's growth 15 per cent, Vadilal is increasing its ad-spend by 40 per cent, with a focus on electronic media.

While the Chinese ice cream market size is around Rs 20,000 crore per annum, India's is only Rs 2,500 crore, of which the organised sector market is estimated at Rs 1,500 crore. Problems such as weak cold chains, logistics and reach to the rural areas are hampering the growth of this industry, they added.

Currently, Vadilal has 150-plus flavours, sold in a variety of more than 250 packs and forms.

The range includes cones, candies, bars, ice-lollies, small and big cups, family packs and economy packs.

The BSE-listed company, whose turnover in 2010-11 was around Rs 270 crore with a PAT of Rs 10 crore, is increasing the network of retailers from the current 50,000 to 70,000 across India. Currently, it procures 70,000 litres of milk per day and is planning for backward integration to increase it in the near future.

“The company's national ice-cream market share would have been even higher but for the fact that it does not operate in major consuming regions such as Maharashtra and the four southern states as these are covered by another faction of the Vadilal family,” the Gandhis said.

 

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Tetra Pak to invest Rs 600 crore to set up a new facility at Chakan, Pune, India

PUNE: Food processing and packaging solutions firm Tetra Pak on Wednesday said it will invest Rs 600 crore to set up a new facility at Chakan, near here to cater to the growing domestic and international demand.



"The total investment in the new factory is expected to be around Rs 600 crore. With strong economic growth, a dynamic consumer base and modernisation of distribution and retailing there is high demand across all categories," Tetra Pak Managing Director (South Asian Markets) Kandarp Singh told reporters here.



The Chakan plant would have an annual capacity of 8.5 billion packages. It could be further scaled up to 16 billion packages a year.



"With a capacity of 8.5 billion packages per year, we are gearing up to meet the growing demands of consumers," he said.



The company, which sells its packaging materials to various companies, including Parle Agro, Dabur and Amul, in the country at present has a manufacturing facility at Takwe, near Pune. The Takwe plant has a capacity of nearly five billion packages annually.



The new facility at Chakan, which would be operational by December 2012, will cater to both domestic and export markets.



"Besides supporting the expected strong growth in the Indian market, the plant will also support the company's growth in other key geographies such as Southeast Asia and the Middle East," Singh said.



The company, which posted sales of Rs 850 crore from India in 2010, is also looking to nearly double its revenues from the country by 2013.



"As the new facility gets operational by 2012 end, we expect to double our revenues from the Indian market," Singh said.



At present the company's existing capacity of five billion packages per year is utilised equally for meeting domestic and overseas demand but it expects the Indian demand to double by 2013.



"This would amount to nearly doubling our revenues from here," Singh added.



The Switzerland-headquartered company employs nearly 22,000 employees and operates in over 170 countries. Its global revenues for the year 2010 stood at 10 billion Euros .



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Keventer plans Rs 400-cr expansion for food processing facilities

Indian foods major, Keventer is set to invest Rs 400 crore in setting up new food processing facilities across Gujarat, Karnataka, Bihar and West Bengal. Construction at all four projects is slated to begin by the end of this fiscal.



Of Rs 400 crore, the company will invest Rs 150 crore in Gujarat, where spread over 120 acres, Keventer will set up a processing unit for ready to eat foods. In Karnataka, on the other hand, the company will invest Rs 105 crore in setting up a food pulping unit on 100 acres.





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NTPC is scouting for new suppliers to speed up pending power projects

National Thermal Power Corporation is scouting for new suppliers to speed up pending power projects, a move that may deprive equipment-supplier Bharat Heavy Electricals of a big chunk of contracts in the future.



NTPC counts heavily on BHEL for its projects but supplies have been delayed at times. The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India has advised NTPC to look for alternative suppliers as BHEL had delayed supplies for projects such as Sipat Stage 2, Farakka, Bhilai and Jhajjar.



"Earlier, we did not have much options. Now, with the opening up of the market, new manufacturers are coming in. These manufacturers have participated in the open bulk tender for the upcoming 9 units of 660MW. NTPC has invited bids from other companies as well for some of its newer projects," an NTPC official said.



BHEL said that delays were sometimes caused by factors beyond its control. "Certain projects like Barh stage 1 and Sipat stage 1 are behind schedule by up to 30-48 months because of delay in the execution of the main plant packages. The Main Plant packages of these projects are ordered on foreign suppliers," a spokesperson for BHEL said.



Domestic suppliers like BHEL are increasingly facing threat from Chinese equipment suppliers, as they are 20% cheaper. BHEL had earlier approached the government asking it to impose a duty on equipments sourced from Chinese power equipment suppliers.



"It is not likely that BHEL may lose out to its Chinese counterpart on account of faster deliveries," the BHEL spokesperson said. He added that none of the Chinese vendors had ever participated in international competitive bidding tenders called by NTPC because of stringent quality and technical requirements.



Despite the huge order book of 1,58,000 crore at the end of the third quarter of the current fiscal year and the leadership position in the domestic markets, the company has acknowledged the growing competition in the sector.



BHEL is currently facing tough competition in its major markets from companies like LT-Mitsubishi Heavy Industries , Bharat Forge- Alstom , Toshiba-JSW, BGR- Hitachi and Ansaldo- caldaie that have also applied for the NTPC tender. Now even South-Korean heavy industries and construction major Doosan is setting up unit in India.



These new players are setting up units in India to benefit from almost 1,40,000 MW of generation capacity that the country is planning to add in the next seven years.



Alstom, another player in the fray, recently won government approval to form two JV s with Bharat Forge to manufacture power plant equipment. BHEL is also facing competition form Chinese equipment makers such as Shanghai Electric Group and Dongfang Electric .





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GE-Triveni Joint Venture

It is a marriage of convenience for the US-based General Electric (GE) and Triveni Engineering of India as they gear up to float a joint venture to design, manufacture, supply, sell and service steam turbines.



Giving details about the joint venture, GE's India president and CEO, John Flannery said both the companies would have an equal number of board members in the new company – called GE Triveni Limited — where GE would be holding 49 per cent of shares and Triveni 51 per cent. Both the companies refused to quantify the equity, but Triveni Engineering Chairman and Managing Director, Dhruv M Sawhney, clarified that the new JV would be manufacturing the equipment at the Triveni Engineering capacity at Bangalore and would be sold with the brand name GE in the global market. Sawhney added that they were looking at a global market of $1-2 billion.



The deal is expected to be closed within six months. It would manufacture 30-100 MW steam turbines and is targetting the West Asia market for its solar-based plants. For its geo-thermal plants, the JV would tap the European, North American and Indonesian markets. The company officials added that they would also be looking at the market in steel, cement and manufacturing segments, where smaller and captive plants are been installed.



Officials of both companies believe that they would sell the product in the domestic as well as in the overseas market. But the under-tested and under-developed Indian market gives them very little scope for growth. According to industry analysts, the total market for such equipment is about four or five units per year and is estimated to be about Rs 500-600 crore. "Oil refineries are the major buyers of such units, along with steel and cement industries," says a senior executive of the power major.



However, market insiders believe that there is not much of a market in India for the 30-100 MW steam turbines.



As for the competition from other US, China and Europe-based companies, Sawhney said: ``We would not be selling them (prospective clients) the equipment alone, but a complete solution. For this, the price, competence and branding would be make us a force to recon with.''





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