Aether Industries inaugurates ₹330-crore R&D centre in Surat.

Chemicals player, Aether Industries Limited has inaugurated its newly expanded R&D centre in Surat, Gujarat.

In an announcement, the company informed that the centre will help serve the growing demand in the CRAMS business segments and underpin efforts to achieve improved efficiency for existing products.

In addition to that, the centre will support innovation for the company's continually growing internal product pipeline to support its Large-Scale Manufacturing business model.

Aman Desai, Promoter and Whole Time Director, Aether Industries Limited, said, "With the establishment of this centre, we will be able to further enhance our capabilities to develop products and chemistries for niche markets. We expect the labs at this centre to consistently operate at full capacity, resulting in an increase in revenue and a boost for the bottom line, since the CRAMS business segments have high EBITDA margins.”

The company has invested ₹330 crore to revamp and grow the size of the R&D centre by 3x, to facilitate the business’ expansion into new markets by way of new and innovative products and processes for international projects.

The new R&D centre is also accompanied by the world’s largest pilot plant with more than 100 reactors and plenty of other necessary downstream equipment.

The centre will house seven synthetic labs with 55 German-made fume hoods.

"This setup will allow the company to conduct 110 reactions daily. Each of the fume hoods, conducive to the achievement of the highest levels of safety, features automation to control several experiment-related parameters. A specialised quality control and assurance lab is also available at the R&D centre," the company said.

The employee count has also grown at the centre, from 164 employees in March 2022 to 193 as of September 30, 2022.

The company expects to employ at least 225 individuals at the centre by the end of FY23, creating jobs in south Gujarat.

HBL