Kolkata, September 27, 2023

The 106^th Annual General Meeting of Balmer Lawrie & Co. Ltd., a Public Sector Enterprise under the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Government of India was held on 27^th September 2023.

 

Below is an extract of the Chairman’s Speech:

The Indian economy appears to have moved forward after its encounter with the pandemic, staging a full recovery in Financial Year 2023 ahead of many nations and positioning itself to ascend to the pre-pandemic growth path in Financial Year 2023. With the containment of COVID-19 infections and the lifting of travel restrictions worldwide, the current Financial Year has shown a rebound, with both passenger and cargo movements being close to the pre-COVID-19 levels. At Balmer Lawrie, we believe strongly that there is no short cut to success. Business success can be achieved only through hard work and giving preference to customer satisfaction. As a result, the Company has continued to grow.   

Overall Financial Performance

The Company recorded a net turnover of Rs.2,38,309.16 Lakh during Financial Year 2022-23 as against Rs. 2,10,484.97 Lakh in the Financial Year 2021-22 which is an increase of 13.22% over last year. Further the Company recorded a Profit Before Tax of Rs.21,130.23 Lakh in the Financial Year 2022-23 as against Rs.17,014.45 Lakh in the Financial Year 2021-22. The increase is being attributed to the easing out effect of COVID-19 pandemic on the performance of SBU - Travel and Vacations which was severely affected in the previous two financial years due to the same. The Reserve and Surplus of your Company increased to Rs.1,18,524.12 Lakh as on 31st March 2023 as compared to Rs.1,14,885.52 Lakh as on 31st March 2022.

Performance of Strategic Business Units (SBUs)

Balmer Lawrie is a diversified PSU with a presence in both manufacturing and service sectors.

Industrial Packaging (SBU: IP) – Being a market leader in the 210 L mild steel drum industry, Balmer Lawrie enjoys a significant position with a handsome market share in most of the customer segments, be it fruits, chemicals, lubricants, transformer oils or additives. SBU-IP has been continuously focusing on quality upgradation, technological innovations, health, safety and environmental parameters, and most importantly on sustainability which helps in having an edge over competition. The SBU expects to continue its growth trajectory in 2023-24. The SBU also plans to expand aggressively in the Exports segment.

Greases & Lubricants (SBU: G&L) – Balmer Lawrie’s “Balmerol” greases are the leaders in the field with over 80 years of manufacturing experience. With the current R&D facilities clubbed with our infrastructure, the SBU has a very good opportunity to increase its market share. The overall growth of the SBU in volumes vis-à-vis last Financial Year is about 3%. SBU-G&L has a strong presence in the industrial segment and is coming up with new products to cater to the diverse demand of the industrial market. In the automotive segment, the focus of the SBU has been appointing new distributors to increase its reach and penetrate nationally.

 

Chemicals (SBU: Chemicals) – With a complete leather chemical product basket, SBU-Chemicals is focusing on the Southern Region where the market potential is higher and has registered a sales growth of 24% over last year in this region. SBU-Chemicals is also focusing on synergy businesses like Textile Chemicals and Agro Chemicals and has launched a few products which will enhance business performance. The SBU also launched a new range of Finishing chemicals. SBU-Chemicals has been able to reach 97% of previous year’s volume and has clocked 11% higher turnover by capturing the market of Imported Fatliquors. The SBU has been able to realize better prices compared to previous years.

Logistics Infrastructure (SBU: LI) – The SBU-LI offers a basket of solutions: Container Freight Stations (CFS), Ambient Warehouses and a Multimodal Logistics Park (through Vishakhapatnam Port Logistics Park Limited). The comprehensive services offered across pan-India locations make SBU-LI a partner of choice to Importers, Exporters, Shipping Lines, CHAs, Freight Forwarders and the trade. CFS - Kolkata added 43000 sq. ft. area of warehouse in addition to the existing 37000 sq. ft, CFS - Chennai added 5000 sq. ft of bonded warehouse for handling Hazardous Cargo and added 20000 sq. ft warehouse space during Financial Year 2022-23 to increase focus on Warehousing activities.

Logistics Services (SBU: LS) – SBU-LS for the second consecutive year achieved all-time record turnover. The growth was driven by incremental business in mainly Air Import, Ocean Import, Ocean Export and Express service. The SBU was able to retain its major GOI and CPSU customers and was also able to sign some of the new activities from those contracted customers. SBU-LS has a well-defined plan and ambition to continue increasing its private sector business with a view to improve topline as the new sales team gains traction on a pan India basis. The SBU has plans to enter the 3PL business and is exploring options to diversify in other areas of logistics.

Cold Chain (SBU: CC) – SBU-CC has four cold chain units operating at Hyderabad, Rai (Haryana), Patalganga (Maharashtra) and Bhubaneshwar (Odisha). To manage the end-to-end supply chain of the Cold Chain operations, the SBU is also operating 18 numbers of 4 MT capacity of reefer vehicles on pan India basis. The storage business had increased 32% in the sales YOY and transportation segment has shown a nominal decrease in revenue, which is mainly due to lower volume in the COVID-19 vaccine distribution business. However, the SBU has been able to rope in new customers from other segments to increase utilization of vehicles vis-à-vis an improvement in revenues which is expected to improve the revenue generation moving forward. The SBU is expecting to increase its footprints across India by setting up of Mini Cold Storage facilities which will be executed at lower capex infusion and implementation lead time.

 

Travel & Vacations (SBU: T&V) – This SBU has two verticals viz., Travel and Vacations.

Travel – The SBU has worked hard to improve its online presence by creating a new B2C website that places strong emphasis on vacations and other services on a single platform. The SBU has already developed a special website for employees of the Government of India to use for their official travel, and it wants to give major corporations a booking website tailored specifically to their needs. Together with counter personnel and digital offerings, the SBU establishes a local presence through partnerships, providing consumers with a hybrid brick-and-click solution.

 

Vacations - India’s tourism sector is showing signs of revival following the easing of COVID-19 restrictions and the waning of the pandemic. It also noted that foreign tourist arrivals in India in the Financial Year 2023 have been growing month-on-month with the resumption of scheduled international flights. The Financial Year 2022-23 is a source of great pride for the Vacations vertical, which achieved its highest-ever gross topline of INR 129.91 crore along with bottomline of INR 77.13 Lakh. The efforts made to recoup the losses incurred over the past two years and return to profitability are notable. The aggregate business increased by more than 2.03 times compared to the previous fiscal year.

Refinery & Oil Field Service (SBU: ROFS) – SBU-ROFS continues to have the highest market share in the oily sludge processing segment in India despite new players entering the niche market. Preference of MSME vendors also poses a significant challenge to the SBU with respect to booking of new orders. However, the SBU intends to leverage its experience in project execution and wide base of satisfied clientele to foray into allied service areas by diversifying its service offerings. SBU-ROFS is working towards mitigation of the risks through upgradation of technology, as well as expansion and diversification of service offerings and client base.