The Hindu Business Line : Praj Industries plans to enter Europe

SETTING up an export-oriented unit, ramping up the IT-enabled engineering business, charitable trusts and entry into the Europe is the route that Praj Industries has chalked out for the current fiscal.

Talking to presspersons, Mr Pramod C. Chaudhari, Chairman, said the company has set up an export-oriented unit in Markal near Alandi in Pune, commissioned 10 days ago.

This unit has a capacity to manufacture 800 tonnes of stainless steel/copper equipment. It has invested Rs 1.5 crore for setting up the unit. Majority of the exports would be handled from the new unit. The company has another unit in Sanaswadi, which has a manufacturing capacity of 2,000 tonnes of stainless steel/ copper equipment from where the exports are being currently handled. Mr Chaudhari said the company is also setting up a wholly owned subsidiary to ramp up its IT-enabled engineering business, for which the board has given its consent.

The subsidiary would handle software-enabled IT engineering for its current distillery domain. The subsidiary is expected to be fully operational by December.

Mr Chaudhari said that the company has already taken steps to establish a trust called the Praj Foundation, for which the statutory formalities have been completed.

Mr Chaudhari said on the global front, the company has a `foot-in-the-door' with an assignment of technical evaluation for upgradation of a distillery plant in North America. He, however, did not divulge more details.

He said the company has set up its operations in Sharjah to handle the West Asian and the North American markets and added that it would be looking into the European markets.