Mumbai: Hindustan Inks and Resins Ltd, (HIRL), the flagship company of Rs 600 crore Bilakhia Group has come out with top line growth of 72 per cent for the third quarter ended 31 December 2000 compared to the third quarter of the previous year’s period.

 Net sales of the company registered a growth of 42 percent for the third quarter of year 2000-01 at Rs 83.91 crore from Rs 48.85 crore while PBDIT stood at Rs 16.7 crore from 11.76 crore in the corresponding period the previous year. Net profit of the company stood at Rs 8.37 crore, which up 24 per cent against Rs 6.7 crore in the same period the previous year, while exports stood at Rs 26.15 crore against Rs 1.26 crore in the same period the previous year.

 Commenting on its performance a spokesperson of the company stated, "The trial runs of products targeted at US customers have been successful and the company is in the process of finalizing orders. The sales of the US subsidiary will pick up in the near future. Besides this, the company’s cost position has improved compared to the previous quarter ended September 2000 due to better capacity utilization."

Hindustan Inks is among the handful of the ink producers worldwide, which is fully integrated into pigments & resins. This successful backward integration has enabled Hindustan Inks to become one of the lowest cost producers of ink in the world. The company has invested US $ 8.50 million in its US subsidiary till date which has acquired manufacturing facilities at Chicago where testing is going on

The Bilakhia Group has diverse interests in printing inks, resins, adhesives, wire enamels and agrochemicals. While Hindustan Inks is the flagship company of the group, the other major companies are Bilag Industries Ltd, (a joint venture with life science giant, Aventis), and Mitsu Ltd.