Manaksia targeting overseas mkt for better paced growth

Excerpts of CNBC-TV18’s exclusive interview with Basant Kumar:

Q: We have got a target from analysts who tracks your company of Rs 1,200 crore in sales next year i.e. FY09 and about Rs 140 crore in profits. Do you think that’s achievable?

A: That target is definitely achievable. I don’t have any doubt about it.

Q: If you indeed end up doing Rs 1200 crore in sales next year, what geographies would that revenue be split between – Nigeria, Nepal and other markets?

A: Our revenue of more than 50% is coming from outside India. We feel that the growth of Manaksia will be more from overseas market. We are targeting overseas market where we feel the company is going to grow at a much better pace.

Q: How much of that Rs 1,200 crore revenues is coming in purely from your packaging products and who are your key clients right now?

A: Packaging is not our major business story.  Our major business is value added metal products, mainly aluminium and steel. Value added aluminium is our major driver which contribute to around 78% of revenue and from packaging we are getting a revenue of only 15%.

Our major customers in packaging are Coca Cola India, Reckitt & Colman, UB and Shaw Wallace.     

Q: You have a mosquito coil business. How large is that and where do you market that, within the domestic market i.e. India or the other markets?

A: We are the largest player in the mosquito coil business and in fact, 60% of India market is with us. We are manufacturing mosquito coil for Mortein, Maxo, Jyothy Lab and Reckitt & Colman. We are also doing it for Eveready where the total share of our business is only 12%.

Q: What are you doing about the raw material front? If you are in a value added business, you do not manufacture the primary metal. Is that likely to squeeze margins or do you have any backward integration plans?

A: We do not foresee any squeeze in margins. The basic reason for this is that we are in a value added product wherein we buy our raw material at LME plus and we sell at LME plus, so our margins are more or less constant.