GHCL eyes Rs 100 crore from consumer division

Gujarat Heavy Chemicals (GHCL) aims to reach Rs 100 crore revenues within 2 years from Consumer Products Division, a top executive said on Monday.

GHCL from Sanjay Dalmia Group, a predominantly industrial player made a foray into FMCG in 2010 with the brand name i-FLO.

“Currently, our turnover is Rs 55-60 crore for consumer products. We are aiming at Rs 100 crore revenues in the next 2 financial years and Rs 300 crore in next 5 years,” GHCL Consumer Products Division Senior General Manager and Head Gopakumar Menon told Deccan Herald.

In Consumer Division, the company embarked its journey with salt. Today, it boasts with 5 varieties and has its salt works at Vedaranyam and the refinery at Chennai for its edible salt manufacturing.

The company has roughly 5,500 tonnes together. “Now, we are trying to increase our capacity to 1 lakh tonnes per annum from 70,000. We are notifying the refinery in Chennai and putting up new plant for this in January.”

“We started trading from Tutupuri as it is hub for salt since our capacity is not as much. We started purchasing from Gujarat. For the last 6 months, we have purchased 600 tonnes. So we have tied up with 2-3 parties. They manufacture, and we sell. From the last 3 months, we are outsourcing it from the third party.”

“We stick to our quality, our person checks and we ensure standard packaging. Quality control is ensured. We are still working on viability of this. We pay Rs 3,000 per tonne, price cost is Rs 2,500, and margins are thin in outsourcing.”

Menon was in the City to launch i-FLO Honey which is outsourced completely by third party manufacturing to Nectar fresh in Mysuru. i-FLO Honey comes in different pack size ranging from 18 gm to 1Kg priced between Rs 15 to Rs 375.