West Coast ups paper capacity with a Rs 1,500 cr investment

Karnataka-based The West Coast Paper Mills has expanded their production capacity by five times since their massive expansion effort from May 2010.

24 May 2011 | By Samir Lukka

"As part of our aggressive growth plans the company invested Rs 1,500 crore, we have completely replaced our pulping and paper line to state-of-the-art technology," explained V Subbiah, vice president, marketing of The West Coast Paper Mills.

The two-year expansion included the addition of VoithDuoFormer machines for the paper line and the use of ECF technology for the pulping line.

"The conversion line is completely automated to the extent of bundling and wrapping along with intrinsic quality control checks which have been established," said Subbiah.

"We believe our production capacity is one of the totally independent paper mills in the country with the top five requisites of raw material, water, power, capital and standards well and truly taken care of," said Kishore Sampath, who is DGM-marketing of the firm.

The company owns certain forest area and follows advanced afforestation practices to ensure eco-balance to production demand. The company participated in an exhibition at Printech – Paper Today held in Chennai from 6 and 8 May 2011 for the first time in their history.

"This exhibition is the first time effort for the company to advertise itself in South India" explained Sampath. "This essentially marks our strong entry into the retail segment with the introduction of B2B copier papers of various quality," he added.

The company which recorded a turnover of Rs 650-crore in the previous financial year has already exceeded that mark in the Q3 of FY 2010-11.

The company is the fifth largest paper manufacturer in the country.