Introduction
Our Company, Mihijam Vanaspati Limited, was incorporated in the year 1989 to undertake manufature of Vanaspati and Refined oil with an installed capacity of 19800 MT per annum. The unit commenced its commercial production from 30.3.1995.
Promoters
The Company has been co-promoted by BSIDC(Bihar State Industrial Development Corporation). The private promoters have other business interest in Steel and other allied activities also.
Location
Our unit is ideally located at Mihijam in the newly created Jamtara district of the Jharkhand State of India, which is only 1 K.M. away from Chittaranjan Rly. Station and is well connected with metal main road and is on the main line of Howrah-Patna-New Delhi route of Eastern Railway. The unit has been strategically located at such a place that it can avail the business opportunities of most of the Eastern India/North-East India with cheapest transporting cost. The distance from Kolkata is only around 235 km. and is connected through Super Express Highway.
Plant and Machineries
Our factory is equipped with latest technology from M/s Alfa Laval India Ltd., a subsidiary Company of Alfa Laval AB, Sweden. Regular updating of the technologies is also undertaken to economize the scale of operation. Packing machines for packing finished products in different packs starting from 50ml to 15kg are readily available. We also have physical refinery unit to process CPO at much reduced process loss to cut down the cost of production significantly.
Power
Our unit has entered into an agreement with Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) supply of continuous power at cheaper rate than of State Electricity Board, resulting in major regular benefit to the unit. The uninterrupted power supply also results in lower plant maintenance, lesser reprocessing cost and consistency in quality and production.
Marketing
Source base for Bunge Agribusinesses (I) Pvt. Ltd. and Agrotech Foods Ltd.
Our Company had entered into agreements with Hindustan Lever Limited in 1996 for manufacturing and supply of their different brands of Vanaspati and Refined oil as per their requirements for most of the East/North-east region. We feel pleased to mention hereat that we have been able to meet their ever growing demands as per their quality standards to their utmost satisfaction. With effect from 1.9.2003, HLL has sold the Dalda brand to Bunge Agribusinesses (I) Pvt. Ltd., the largest edible oil processor of the World. Due to their expertise & core competence in the edible oil business, the new company has started taking larger volume from us and has promised further higher volumes of lifting from us in near future.
We also have entered into an agreement with Agrotech Foods Ltd. for supply of their ‘Rath’ brand vanaspati to their East/North-East region depots.
We sell around 30-40% of our total production to above two companies. Balance productions are sold by us under our own brand, namely “Mamta” & “Cherry”. The own brands are sold by the company through brokers, consignment agents or directly to wholesalers and major consumers. The products are sold in different pack-sizes like 100/200/500/1000 ml poly packs and 15 ltr polyjars. Since, the company is the sole Vanaspati manufacturing company of Jharkhand, its product enjoy a niche/premium in the local markets. The company markets its products in almost all cities/towns of the Jharkhand and in some selected areas of Assam, West Bengal, Orissa and Bihar and other part of India. The present turn over of the unit is 240.00 crores per anum. At present, the market size of the Jharkhand itself is around 4000/4500 MT per month.
The company also produces industrial bakery fats for supply to bakery and confectionery units. Since, the above sector is growing at a faster rate and a number of units have come up within 100 kms radius, the company finds the above sector a prospective avenue for marketing its products.
Outlook for industry
Oils and fats constitute an essential part of human diet and are used for industrial purposes as well. Nutritionally also, certain minimum amount of Oils and Fats are necessarily required to be consumed to maintain the body balance and energy requirements.
On account of increasing domestic requirement due to rising population and the per capita income, the demand and supply gap in vegetable oil is on increase. The average per capita consumption of vegetable oil including ‘vanaspati’ use0d to be at 4.0 kg in 1961 which has now risen to 12.1 kg in 2001. Whereas the per capita consumption of some developed/developing countries is Israel (31.6), Taiwan (36.4), Hong Kong (39.0), Japan (21.7), UAE (24.8), South Africa (20.4), Canada (46.5), USA (51.0) and so on
As the population of India is increasing at the rate of 2.2% p.a. and the economic growth is 3.5% p.a., the cumulative effect of the same on consumption of fats and oils is 5-6% p.a. This translates into a huge increase in demand every year.
The unit is located in one of the highly deficient Vanaspati market i.e. in Jharkhand beside Jharkhand-Bengal border. This is the single vanaspati unit of Jharkhand and is also strategically located to cater to markets of other states, namely, Orissa, Assam, West Bengal and North-East states. Hence, the company does not expect any difficulty in marketing of its products.