CCL to invest Rs 200 cr for three fold expansion of AP plant

Hyderabad, Oct 4 (UNI) CCL products India Ltd (CCL), a 100 per cent export-oriented instant coffee manufacturing unit, plans to invest Rs 200 crore for three-fold expansion to 25,000 tonne which will make its plant in Andhra Pradesh the single largest instant coffee making facility in the world by 2009.

Its state-of-the-art manufacturing facility at Duggirala in Guntur district was being upscaled to produce 10,000 tonne of spray-dried coffee and 4,000 tonne of freeze dried coffee by March 2007 with Rs 150 crore investment. Currently the CCL's plant capacity was 8,000 tonne, which included 6,500 MT of spray-dried coffee and 1,500 MT of freeze dried coffee.

While addressing media, CCL Chairman and Managing Director C Rajendra Prasad said here today, by January 2007 it would introduce for the first time liquid coffee, to become the only plant to manufacture all variants of instant coffee. By December 2006 the plant would be upscaled to 10,000 MT enroute making it 25,000 MT capacity by 2008-2009. The world's largest single facility for instant coffee at present was in Brazil with 18,000 MT capacity.

The company had reported a 61 per cent increase in its net sales at Rs 50 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2006 as compared to Rs 31 crore during the same period last year. Net profit in Q2 FY07 rose by 48 per cent to Rs 12 crore from Rs eight crore in the corresponding quarter last year.

EPS for the quarter ended September 30, 2006 stood at Rs nine as compared to Rs six in the corresponding period last year. Net sales for half the year ended September 30, 2006 was Rs 81 crore, registered a growth of 38 per cent while net profit for the period also rose to Rs 21 crore registering a growth of 39 per cent.

UNI DB GKT 1922