Hikal acquires Wintac’s manufacturing and R&D units
Mumbai: Hikal Ltd. has acquired the Bangalore-based Wintac Ltd., formerly known as Recon Ltd. The acquisition marks a new phase of development of Hikal providing it with fresh impetus for its foray in the healthcare business. Wintac has been engaged in manufacture and marketing of active pharmaceutical ingredients and intermediates and has good R& D facilities, for handling high-level of chemistry and contract research in the area of pharmaceuticals.

Mr.Jai Hiremath, managing director of Hikal Ltd. has said that acquisition will give Hikal an excellent platform to launch itself in the healthcare sector and become one of the prominent players in the coming years.

Hikal is in the business of custom synthesis and toll manufacture for major international companies in the areas of pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals and intermediates for over a decade now and has manufacturing facilities at Taloja, Mahad in Maharashtra and Panoli in Gujarat.
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Cox & Kings to focus on outbound tourists
New Delhi: Cox & Kings, a leading travel company has decided to focus on outbound travel segment in 2001-2002. Mr. L. Prithviraj Singh, COO (leisure) at Cox & Kings says outbound tourism has grown at 18 per cent in 2000-2001, compared to inbound tourism, which grew at only at about 5-6 per cent.

Outbound tourism has shown a cumulative growth of 61 per cent between 1990 and 1999. The market size for outbound travel was 2.3 million travelers in 1990, which grew to an estimated figure of 4.1 million in 2000 and is expected to reach 5.2 million in 2005. Of this, the leisure segment is expected to reach over 2 million in the same year.

Currently, business travel accounts for 50 per cent of Cox & Kings' turnover, of which outbound travel accounts for 30 per cent and inbound travel amounts to the rest. The company has estimated a turnover of Rs 360 crore for 2000-2001 and Rs 540 crore for 2001-2002.
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Amul getting set for a foray into fast food
New Delhi: Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), the Rs 2,220-crore marketing arm of Amul is planning to set up a chain of fastfood joints, in a bid to take on the likes of McDonald’s, Dominos and Pizza Huts.

The nitty-gritty of Amul’s proposed entry into the fast food sector is being currently worked out. A pilot project is reportedly being tested out at Amul headquarters in Anand. The choice of quick Thali meal or a spread out of sandwiches, burgers, pizza, shakes is believed to be under consideration.

With the practice of eating out rapidly picking up in most parts of the country, Amul does not want to be left behind in the race for marketshare. Initially, Amul is planning to spread out its offerings in the west. Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Baroda, Surat are among some of the places that have been identified. After monitoring the success in these cities, Amul would expand into other parts as well.
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Sundaram Fastners to acquire fastner unit in China
New Delhi: Sundaram Fastners Ltd. has said on Thursday that it was closing in on negotiations with a Chinese fastner company and would soon be acquiring the unit. Mr. Suresh Krishna, chairman and managing director of Sundaram Fastners Ltd. said that company was looking at the possibility of buying out the Chinese company to add synergies to its operations, while simultaneously testing the Chinese market.

He said the company was also exploring the possibility of entering into strategic equity partnership or technical collaboration with other Chinese companies in the cold extruded products, sintered components and intelligent systems segment.
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Welspun India gets two major export orders
Mumbai: Welspun India Ltd. (WIL), one of the top 10 terry towel manufacturers in the world, has received two major export contracts worth Rs 80 crore for 6 million pieces of towels from the UK-based ASDA and a repeat order for three million pieces from Walmart of the US.

The order from ASDA is worth 8 million, while the Walmart order is for $7 million. With this new order, Welspun would now have 5 per cent market share of the UK terry towels market, making it one of the largest suppliers of terry towels in UK.

The company is targeting exports of $75 million for 2001-02. In the long run, the company plans to promote Indian cotton. Welspun India is the flagship of the Rs 800 crore Welspun Group, the largest manufacturer of terry towels in Asia and has a state-of-the-art 7,500 tonne per annum integrated terry towel unit at Vapi.
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JP Systems awarded direct-to-store delivery project
Hyderabad: JP Systems India, has been awarded a project by Woolworths (New Zealand) to develop supply chain delivery process automation direct to store delivery project for the latter’s chain of supermarkets in New Zealand.

The software company has partnered with a New Zealand firm Mobile and ECommerce Solutions to jointly deliver the solution initially on a pilot for Woolworths and later to be scaled across 83 supermarkets across New Zealand. The pilot project is expected to be delivered by March 31.

Woolworths, a subsidiary of Dairy Farm International had sales of US$ 6.8 billion in 1999. Dairy Farm has 2,000 outlets in the Asia-Pacific region, prominent being Food World in India, Gaint and Wellsave in Malaysia, Cold Storage in Singapore and Franklins in Australia and Hero in Indonesia.
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Sanghi to start trial production of cement
New Delhi: Sanghi Industries, a cement unit, located in the quake-devastated Kutch region, is all set to start commercial production by September 2001. Trial production is set to begin during July and the unit will start full-fledged operations by the end of this year. The unit did not suffer any damage due to quake, as it had been designed to withstand seismic activity.

Sanghi’s cement unit will service its customers on the West Coast, through the sea route, which is reckoned to be cheaper than by road transportation. The freight cost for locations on the West Coast would be one-third that of the road transport cost. Also since the unit is located close to the coast, it would have an advantage in exports. The company has plans for long-term tie-ups with various countries for supply of cement.

The company is presently putting up a jetty, which can facilitate loading of fairly large vessels. The massive reconstruction that has been undertaken in the quake-hit areas of Gujarat will also fuel demand for the company’s cement. Most of the areas affected by the quake are within 150 km of the unit, giving it an advantage in terms of freight.
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Ford India to export 20,000 cars to S Africa, Mexico
New Delhi: Ford Motor has said that Ford plant in India will ship 20,000 completely knocked down (CKD) cars to South Africa and Mexico this year and earn $35 million in export revenues. The Ford Ikon was recently launched this month in South Africa and Mexico. The CKD kits will be assembled at Ford's South African plant in Pretoria and at Cuautitlan in Central Mexico.

The 1,600cc Ikon sedan, launched in India in December 1999 has a market share of about 22 percent in India's mid-size car segment but is positioned in the small car segment in South Africa and Mexico. South Africa and Mexico are among the first two markets that Ford has targeted.

Ford had already shipped 7,000 cars in CKD form, about 80 percent of the value of a fully built up vehicle, between October 2000 and January. It has sold 17,402 Ikons in India in 2000 and exported 5,447 Ikons, achieving a turnover of about $320 million. The company targets to sell over 40,000 cars in 2001.
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