1. Mr. Viren Sinha, Chairman and Managing Director Balmer Lawrie & Co. Ltd
Anil Mascarenhas , IIFL | Mumbai | November 18, 2014 18:47 IST
Replying to Anil Mascarenhas of IIFL, Viren Sinha says, "The logistics business is the bottomline
driver for the company and in the next 2-3 years we would be making investments of around Rs 350
crore in this business."
Mr. Viren Sinha, Chairman and Managing Director Balmer Lawrie &
Co. Ltd is a Bachelor of Arts and holds a Masters Degree in Business
Administration. He has a working experience of 36 years during which he has
developed expertise in Marketing, International Trade especially in
understanding operation of Multi- Modal Logistics Hubs and Container
Freight Stations and in General Management.
Balmer Lawrie & Co. Ltd. started its corporate journey as a
Partnership Firm and was founded by two Scotsmen, George Stephen
Balmer and Alexander Lawrie, in Kolkata, 1867. Traversing the
nearly 150 years gone by, today Balmer Lawrie is a Mini-Ratna I
Public Sector Enterprise under the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Govt. of India. Along with
its six Joint Ventures in India and abroad, it is a much-respected transnational diversified
conglomerate with presence in both manufacturing and service sectors. Balmer Lawrie is a market
leader in Steel Barrels, Industrial Greases & Specialty Lubricants, Corporate Travel and Logistics
Services. It also has significant presence in most other businesses, it operates, viz, Performance
Chemicals, Logistics Infrastructure etc. Balmer Lawrie has been successfully responding to the
demands of an ever changing environment, leveraging every change as an opportunity to innovate and
emerge a leader in industry.
Replying to Anil Mascarenhas of IIFL, Viren Sinha says, "The logistics business is the bottomline
driver for the company and in the next 2-3 years we would be making investments of around Rs 350
crore in this business."
The logistics sector has been doing well in the country and also in your business. What are the
new opportunities and challenges you face?
There are immense opportunities for growth in the area of cold chain logistics, 3PL, Project Logistics
and Freight Forwarding. We are foraying into the areas of Cold Chain Logistics and Multi Modal
Logistics Hub (MMLH). We are in the process of setting up multi product Temperature Controlled
Warehouses (TCW), which will primarily cater to Quick Service Retail (QSR), Multi Retail (MR),
Pharma and F&V segments of the market. We are also setting up a first of its kind MMLH at
Visakhapatnam in association with Visakhapatnam Port Trust (VPT). We've made significant
investments and we are fully geared up to grow this business in future.
In India the cost of transportation, inadequate rail, road and coastal connectivity and availability of

2. land at right location at right price for setting up warehousing facilities are some of the major
challenges we face.
You have 6 business units. Give us a revenue break-up of your various businesses. Do you see
the pie changing significantly in the coming years?
We have six major Strategic Business Units (SBU) spanning across the manufacturing and services
sectors. These are Greases & Lubricants, Industrial Packaging and Leather Chemicals in the
manufacturing sector and Logistics Services, Logistics Infrastructure and Travel & Vacations in the
service sector. These businesses form the core of Balmer Lawrie and we are making investments in all
these areas to grow each one of these businesses.
Currently the revenue break-up is 60:40 between services and manufacturing businesses. With the
acquisition of Vacations Exotica and its integration with Balmer Lawrie's Travel business, the revenue
break-up can alter marginally, but not very significantly as other manufacturing businesses are
expected to grow in the near to future term.
Are you looking at hiving off any businesses like the barrel business?
We are continuously assessing our businesses, looking at various opportunities and options of
acquisitions, mergers etc., but at this point of time there is no concrete proposal of hiving of any of
our businesses.
What are your plans for railway container handling.
Balmer Lawrie's joint venture i.e., Transafe Services Limited caters to this segment and they shall
continue to focus on this segment.
With the new government at the Centre, what changes do you envisage in the infrastructure
space. How does it augur for your business.
The last two years have been extremely challenging with growth in the infrastructure sector slowing
down considerably. However, with new government in place, we have started seeing significant
movement in promoting growth not only in the infrastructure sector but also in the manufacturing
sector as a whole.
Acquisition of land has proved to be major hurdle for us and the new government is likely to make
things easier. Decision making has also become much faster. All this is bound to have a positive
impact on the company's various businesses.
Comment on your major JVs. How are they performing?
Barring Transafe Services Ltd., which has faced serious problems, all other joint ventures of Balmer
Lawrie are performing extremely well. Our new venture in Indonesia is going through a period of
gestation and we are positive of its performance in the years to come.
Brief us on your financials. What is the outlook?
We have been extensively restructuring and realigning our businesses to meet our growth aspirations.
We have been making significant investments in most of our businesses. We have also embarked on a
very ambitious plan to improve the visibility of our various brands, such as Vacations Exotica,
Balmerol etc., and are making significant investments to bear fruit in the coming years. All this will
surely result in increased revenue but would have some impact on our margins in the short term.
The net income for the fourth quarter of the FY 2013-14 stood at Rs 698 cr with the gross income
registering Rs 736 cr. The PBT was Rs 94 cr and the PAT Rs 71 cr for the quarter ended 31st March,
2014. The gross income of the Company stood at Rs 2843 cr for the year ended 31st March 2014.The
net income clocked was Rs2707 cr. While the Profit before Tax (PBT) was Rs 220 cr, the Profit after
Tax (PAT) was Rs 157 cr.
You were planning to spend on developing the cold chain infrastructure to strengthen your
logistics business. Could you outline some of your plans here.

3. The logistics business is the bottom line driver for the company and in the next 2-3 years we would be
making investments of around Rs 350 crore in this business. The cold chain business has been taken
up on priority as we anticipate that the government's push in reducing farm produce wastage as well
as growth in organized retail will accelerate the need for cold chain facilities. In phase-I we would be
setting up facilities at Hyderabad, Mumbai and NCR. Work at Hyderabad facility has already
commenced. In phase -II we would be setting up facilities at Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata and another
location in Northern India.
What demand are you seeing for temperature-controlled warehouses? Which sectors would you
look at catering and what plans do you have here?
We expect temperature-controlled warehousing to maintain a healthy growth rate of 18-20% over the
next couple of years. We intend to differentiate ourselves as a value added service provider and play
in the multi commodity space of this business.
How many warehouses do you have at present and what expansion do you expect in the coming
year?
At present we are not a major player in the warehousing segment with stand-alone warehousing
facilities being restricted to Kolkata and Coimbatore. We have however, significantly augmented
warehousing capacities at our Container Freight Stations and are likely to invest in this sector to grow
the 3PL business.
Brief us on the multimodal logistics hub with Visakhapatnam Port Trust. When is it likely to
take off?
The Multi Modal Logistic Hub at Vishakhapatnam will be the Company's single largest investment as
on date. The total investment is approx. Rs 220 Crs and is being set up as an SPV with Vizag Port
Trust (VPT), wherein VPT would provide the land and Balmer Lawrie will invest and manage the
facility. The facility is spread over 50 acres of land and the work for implementing the project has
already commenced. Completion time is 18 months.
Any plans in going big as far the travel business is concerned. You have bulk of your business
coming from PSUs. Also there were reports of huge outstandings. Do you expect this to get
settled anytime soon?
Balmer Lawrie has historically been a ticketing company and we have catered mainly to government
departments and corporates both in the PSU and non-PSU sector. While we have been extremely
competitive in offering our services, the nature of the Industry, with its low commission, has made it
necessary for us to expand in the area of Vacations, Holidays and MICE. Since building skills and
capabilities would have taken time, we have recently acquired Vacations Exotica, a leading vacations
brand and this has been integrated with our ticketing business. The SBU now known as Travel &
Vacations is sure to improve the top and bottom line in this business. The outstandings are primarily
from the government departments and we continue to make all efforts to trim it down.
Travel has gone a lot online. Are you making some online efforts to boost business?
In the long run, we see ourselves as a technology driven travel and vacations company with the
capability to support our customers engage with us online. While we do have an online transactional
portal (www.balmerlawrietravel.com) at the moment we do not intend to become a pure online player
in the foreseeable future.
Being such an old company, could you cite some of the innovations which have come from your
company? What can we expect in future?
Balmer Lawrie has pioneered in a number of areas in the past. Of late our major innovations have
been in the areas of Specialty Lubricants, Industrial Packaging and Leather Chemicals. We are one of
the first companies to have developed food grade greases and lubricants totally through in-house
R&D work and also a range of bio-degradable and long life lubricants. Similarly in the area of
Industrial Packaging, our innovation has primarily being giving world class products at very
competitive prices and very large investments have been made in upgrading our plants. Our entire

4. range of leather chemicals have been developed with in-house technology. In our Container Freight
Stations, we were the first to use RFID technology for yard management and container tracking.
What is your employee strength? Any ramp up plans?
Our employee strength is around 2000 employees and we are continuously inducting fresh talent at
various levels.
http://www.indiainfoline.com/article/news-top-story/mr-viren-sinha-chairman-and-managing-director-
balmer-lawrie-co-ltd-114111800159_1.html