Aarti Industries Ltd (AIL), a speciality chemicals company with significant presence in pharmaceuticals, plans to invest Rs 75 crore for establishing an R&D and innovation complex at Jhagadia (Gujarat). “The board of directors of the company have approved an investment of Rs 75 crore to set up a world class R&D, scale-up and innovation complex at Jhagadia, Gujarat spread over 50,000 sq. ft. and equipped with the state-of-the-art equipment and analytical tools,” said AIL in a press statement.
At present, Aarti Industries operates three R&D centres. While two of these centres carry out R&D initiatives for pharmaceutical APIs, the third one focuses on speciality chemicals.
The new complex will comprise an R&D centre, a scale-up facility consisting of a kilo-lab and a pilot plant, an innovation centre, dedicated labs for process safety, effluent treatment, etc. It will house over 150 scientists and engineers responsible for researching and developing breakthrough innovations, as well as for commercial scale up of various speciality chemicals.
The complex will more than double AIL’s R&D capabilities and focus on development of newer and niche value-added products and process chemistries, improving product quality and process yields of existing products, forward integration for downstream products etc, with thrust on environment friendly processes. It will enable Aarti Industries to further strengthen its global presence in the end-user applications of agrochemicals, fuel additives, pharmaceuticals, polymers, rubber chemicals, etc.
With increased contribution from value added products the company expects to strengthen its profitable growth momentum.
“The setting up of this R&D centre will enable us to enhance and expand our capabilities to develop high-end value added products and chemistries with niche market opportunities. The optimism for our new innovation centre is driven by a strong confidence in our R&D capabilities, process chemistries and customer relationships; and we clearly see a sizeable and sustainable opportunity. We have the levers to take advantage of the growth opportunities which are clearly identified and we continue to remain focused on them without any change,” commented Rajendra Gogri, chairman & MD, Aarti Industries.
Aarti Industries is one of the leading benzene-based speciality chemical companies in the world. It combines process chemistry competence (recipe focus) with scale-up engineering competence (asset utilisation). The company serves leading consumers across the globe of speciality chemicals and intermediate for pharmaceuticals, agro chemicals, polymers, pigments, printing inks, dyes, fuel additives, aromatics, surfactants and various other speciality chemicals.
