Restructured Fenner India to set up plant in Uttaranchal

Venkatachari Jagannathan Jagannathan
25 September 2006

"We expect to start the plant construction sometime in 2007 and the outlay is around Rs 20 crore," says president and director L Ramkumar.

But it is not the only project that he is busy with. It is going to take atleast two years for Ramkumar to heave a sigh of relief, given the projects that are lined up for execution.

As announced earlier, the company will soon start construction of its state-of-art new oil seal plant in Chennai. "The bhoomi puja will be on 2 October 2006, and the plant will be completed by May 2007," he says. The company has placed orders for nearly 70 per cent of the machinery for the new plant.

As regards the proposed belt plant in Hyderabad, tenders will soon be floated and the construction is expected to start in June 2007.

The construction of new plants apart, Fenner India is also modernising its oil seal plant in Chennai. The company has bought latest presses and is looking at different kinds of mouldings. Fenner India has also changed the layout of its Madurai plant. "We have budgetted around Rs 15 crore for modernising our production facilities."

Meanwhile the company continues its scouting for a suitable metal or rubber-based auto component business to acquire. The company had earlier announced that it was setting aside Rs 100 crore for this purpose. "We did talk to a couple of prospects in India, Europe and Far East and visited some plants. But nothing suited our needs. We are still on the look out."