One of Mercator's ships: Thus far, it has been smooth sailing

Growth, it would seem, has become a habit with this company. And H.K. Mittal, the Chairman and Managing Director, Mercator Lines, (2003-04 revenues Rs 242.13 crore; 2004-05 nine-month revenues Rs 388.24 crore), insists that "sales and profits should at least double during the next year as well." To facilitate this, the company is increasing capacity to 20 lakh tonnes from 10.31 lakh tonnes (10 ships) now. With almost 75 per cent of its business (according to Mittal) built around long-term contracts, Mercator is unlikely to feel the pinch should shipping rates that are ruling firm right now go down in the future.

-Narendra Nathan

Steel Strips Wheels

Steel Strips Wheels (2003-04 revenues Rs 82.9 crore; 2004-05 nine-month revenues Rs 106.1 crore) is one of the few companies that supplies wheel rims to automobile, two-wheeler and three-wheeler makers, and the boom in these markets explains why the company has grown its net profit some 120 per cent to Rs 11 crore for the nine months ending December 31, 2004. "We have broad-based our customer base, moving from cars to two- and three-wheelers, and even tractors,"says Dhiraj Garg, Managing Director, Steel Strips. With its first batch of exports leaving for Poland this month, things can only get better (and faster) for Steel Strips.

-Supriya Shrinate

Mining riches: Gujarat NRE Coke is growing, and retail investors have been at a happy receiving end

Gujarat NRE Coke

The Rs 285-crore Gujarat NRE Coke (GNCL), India's only independent producer of metallurgical coke, is not just growing, but rewarding its retail investors as well. For instance, it declared bonuses in 2001-02 (1:2), 2002-03 (1:2) and 2003-04 (1:1). "Our profitability is Rs 4,000 per tonne compared to a capital cost of Rs 2,000 per tonne," says Sumit Kumar Khetan, President, GNCL. To maintain its growth momentum, the company is more than doubling capacity to 1.4 million tonnes this fiscal and has bought an Australian mine to ensure timely supply of raw material.

-Arnab Mitra

Manugraph India

A low base may have helped printing machinery manufacturer Manugraph (2003-04 revenues, Rs 202.59 crore; 2004-05 nine-month revenues, Rs 174.83 crore) grow rapidly in 2004, but the company is working hard to maintain momentum in years to come. It has already embarked on a plant modernisation programme that will cost Rs 20 crore. "We have confirmed orders (50 per cent of this are exports) till September 2005," says Sanjay S. Shah, Vice Chairman and Managing Director, Manugraph. "And with the modern plant our bottom line will grow faster than our revenues." That's a pretty picture.

-Narendra Nathan

Eyeing the acquisition route: K. Balasubramanium, Chairman, Teledata Info (L), with K. Padmanabhan, MD

Teledata Informatics

Not too many people in India have heard of Teledata Informatics (Revenues for the 15-month period ending March 31, 2004 Rs 60 crore; 2004-05 nine-month revenues Rs 132.7 crore). That's because the company operates in fairly niche areas: software packages targeted at the shipping industry (like ShipManager, a complete ship management software) and the education industry (Web EIM Education Institution Manager is a school and university management software), and e-commerce solutions. Now, says K. Padmanabhan, Managing Director, Teledata, the company is looking to raise $75 million (Rs 330 crore) through overseas funding to bankroll acquisitions. "With acquisitions in the pipeline, I believe we can touch a turnover of Rs 1,000 crore in 2005-06," he says.

-Nitya Varadarajan

Shanthi Gears

Shanthi Gears is a Coimbatore-based designer and manufacturer of industrial gears and gearboxes and although it is small (2003-04 revenues Rs 87.14 crore; 2004-05 nine-month revenues Rs 100 crore), the company has global aspirations. Shanti's management would not talk to Business Today, but this reporter learns that its proposed expansion (cost: Rs 50 crore) will not happen in the beginning of 2005-06 as planned, but slightly later. Eventually, this expansion will help the cause of growth.

-Nitya Varadarajan

KPIT Cummins' Patil: After the United States, it's Japan and Germany that this software firm is eyeing

KPIT Cummins Infosystems

In the software solutions space, it pays to have a niche focus. KPIT Cummins (2003-04 revenues Rs 124.51 crore; 2004-05 nine-month revenues Rs 141.56 crore) is focussed on the manufacturing area (it also offers solutions to the banking industry), and this, reckons Kishor Patil, Managing Director and CEO, should help it "become a $100-million (Rs 440-crore) company by 2006-07". Japan and Germany are important markets for any software solutions provider that is seeking to address the manufacturing sector, and KPIT is targeting these countries (in addition to whatever it does in the us).

-Narendra Nathan

Nagarjuna Agrichem

In 1998, mounting losses almost made Nagarjuna Agrichem (2003-04 revenues Rs 200 crore; 2004-05 nine-month revenues Rs 231 crore) become a BIFR (Board of Industrial and Financial Reconstruction) company, a halfway house from which few organisations return to health, but it reworked its business model, broadened its product portfolio, cut down layers of management within the company, focussed on R&D, and built capabilities in custom synthesis and manufacturing. On the strength of these, G.S. Raju, the company's Managing Director, is eyeing net sales of Rs 500 crore and a net profit of Rs 45 crore by 2008.

-E. Kumar Sharma

Bilcare

What makes Bilcare (2003-04 revenues Rs 106.62 crore; 2004-05 nine-month revenues Rs 115.11 crore) unique is not its speed of growth (which is pretty impressive), but its area of operation, pharmaceutical packaging. This is especially important in a country like India where the weather is hot and humid, and the nearest counterfeiter is just an arm's length away. "That is why we work closely with pharmaceutical companies to develop new (packaging) products that suits them," says Mohan H. Bhandari, Chairman and Managing Director, Bilcare. The adventitious benefit: products developed thus are helping the company make inroads into the export market as well.

-Narendra Nathan

Emco

One, for the nine months ended December 31, 2004, Emco posted revenues of Rs 159.47 crore against the Rs 153.6 crore it did in all of 2003-04. Two, with power sector reforms underway, this manufacturer of electrical transformers and tamper-proof electronic energy meters is expected to grow faster in the near future. "The governmen's concentration on the power sector, increased railway electrification, etc., have boosted demand for our products," says Narayan Iyer, General Manager (Finance), Emco. And with exports taking off-the company has bagged a large export contract (approximately for Rs 25 crore) for the design, manufacture and supply of high voltage power transformers from Syria-Emco is a company to watch.

-Narendra Nathan