Balmer Lawrie to invest Rs. 265 crore for expansion.

Balmer Lawrie & Co Ltd. plans to invest around Rs. 265 crore on its lubricants and warehouse businesses in the next few years.

The company will spend Rs. 100 crore for revamping its speciality lubricants business and Rs. 165 crore in building seven temperature-controlled multi-product warehouses in two phases, Virendra Sinha, Chairman and Managing Director of the Government-owned company, told BusinessLine.

The investment in the lubricants business will be mainly done at its Kolkata plant.

'The speciality lubricants for high-end uses in automotives and industrial products are currently drawing the manufacturing focus of the company. We are involved in improving the processes and revamping our research and development efforts towards this segment,' he said.

The company has already upgraded its 50,000 tonnes a year Silvassa lube plant at a cost of Rs. 150 crore.

It is also looking into expanding its retail distribution network for speciality lubricants and improvement in brand visibility and supply chain.

The plan is to expand the distribution network to 100 new towns. The diversified company will invest Rs. 65 crore in the first phase of setting up three temperature-controlled warehouses - one each in Hyderabad, Rewari (in Haryana) and Patalganga (near Mumbai).

'All three will have a capacity of 3,000 pallets each,' Sinha added. In the second phase, it would set up four such warehouses in Chennai, Bengaluru and Pune.

Meanwhile, the company has decided to make foray into leather finishing chemical. It is currently talking to a European company for technology tie-up and substantial buy-back arrangement for leather finishing chemicals.

This new facility will be set up at its Chennai plant.

Balmer Lawrie, after setting up a 19.2 lakh barrels a year steel drum manufacturing unit at Navi Mumbai, is now considering improving efficiencies at its other such plants in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.


HBL