DIC India notches Rs 403 million profit; eyes growth in 2016

The news from DIC India is good. The Indian operations of the global ink manufacturer has recorded a turnover of Rs 7460.62 million as against Rs 7186.96 million in the previous year registering an increase of 5% in terms of value as well as volume.

03 Sep 2016 | By Noel D'Cunha

As per a statement released by DIC earlier this year, “DIC India went from a loss (before tax) of Rs 392.24 million in the previous year to profit before tax of Rs 402.97 million. The segmental profit (before unallocable expenses, income and interest) from the ink segment and lamination adhesives were Rs 536.86 million (previous year loss of Rs 211.12 million) and Rs 27.59 million (previous year loss of Rs 11.79 million) respectively.”

“In the period under review, economic recovery persisted in India,” said Rishi Raj Bhaskar, DIC India’s general manager - marketing. “In India, the pace of growth has been healthy. We have seen a rally in India. Our print economy has an upswing.”

The sales of offset and news inks has been steady. Packaging ink sales have been steady, and gravure inks is a bright spot. One reason, according to the company sources, besides market fundamentals and GDP growth in 2015 has been “the falling crude prices which was the lowest in the decade and also other commodity prices".

Shailendra Hari Singh, the managing director and CEO of DIC India since March 2015 has looked at the development and execution of the DIC’s long term strategy through sound business strategies in order to drive strong business growth. Shailendra Singh said, “India's GDP growth is expected to be stable at 7-7.5% in 2016–17 as it is more dependent on its inherent strength and less exposed to external factors, including slowdown in China and global capital flows.”

DIC and Sun Chemical made some significant moves worldwide during the past 12 months. DIC announced that PT.DIC Graphics, DIC’s Jakarta-based wholly owned subsidiary, will build a new blending facility for liquid inks for food and beverage packaging in Surabaya, Indonesia. In India, DIC India is focussing on upgrading their manufacturing plants in India leveraging their global network to also bring in best practices and on continuous improvement.

In February 2016, Sun Chemical completed the acquisition of the flexo ink business of Colmar Inks Corporation of Ontario, Canada. According to Rishi Raj Bhaskar, these moves may reap benefits for the Indian market as well. DIC plans to participate in increasing number of market outreach programmes such as the packaging conferences organised by the Indian Institute of Packaging and LabelExpo in India in November.

DIC Corporation is a global company consisting of more than 170 companies, including Sun Chemical. DIC notched USD 6.83 billion in 2015 and an operating income of USD 133 million.