Kirby India eyes Rs 800 cr turnover in FY07

New Delhi, Aug 26: Riding high on the back of growing demand of pre-engineered steel buildings (PEB) in the country, leading PEB supplier Kirby Building Systems India Ltd targets a 70 per cent increase in its turnover at Rs 800 crore by the end of this financial year.

''Seeing the growing demand of pre-engineered steel buildings in the country, we are eyeing a turnover of Rs 800 crore from the Indian operations in the financial year 2007-08 as compared to Rs 470 crore last fiscal,'' company's Chairman and Managing Director Praveen Tandon said here.

He added that the company is also planning to raise the headcounts from 2,500 to 3,100 within one year.

The Hyderabad-based firm has increased its steel fabrication capacity from one lakh MT to two lakh MT, against the country's total capacity of four lakh tonnes a year.

Thus, it accounts for over 50 per cent of the total PEB capacity in the country, with a 55 per cent market share of the domestic PEB industry.

Kirby India, an arm of the billion dollar Kuwait-based Alghanim Industries, has two plants in Hardwar and Hyderabad with a running steel fabrication capacity of 1.25 lakh MT and 75,000 MT respectively Mr Tandon said the company also plans to set up its third steel fabrication plant of 50,000 MT, somewhere in the western part of the country with an initial investment of Rs 50 crore, which is likely to be commissioned by mid-2009.

The company caters to various customers including Tata Steel, Videocon, GE, Reliance, Nokia, Toyota, Ford, BMW, Skoda and Bridgestone.

The parent company Kirby Building Systems has two plants in Kuwait and the UAE with a total capacity of 1.5 lakh tonnes.

It is also setting up a 50,000 tonne greenfield plant in Vietnam with an investment of Rs 70 crore. It will be operational by June next year.

Pre-Engineered Steel Buildings, populary known as PEB is a factory-made steel building delivered to the site from a single supplier without any fabrication or welding.

PEB is light in weight, quake-resistant and offers the benefit of being portable and easy to relocate to another site.

UNI