The Brij Mohan Khaitan group is setting the stage for a foray into tourism by converting surplus land in its tea growing areas to resorts.
On the sidelines of Eveready Industries India's extraordinary general meeting, Deepak Khaitan, executive vice chairman and managing director, said of the 60,000 hectares under the group in Assam, only 25,000 hectares were used by plantations.
He said that there was some serious thinking in these lines in the company. The company also has six gardens in Dooars, which could be utilised for the purpose.
Khaitan said it was likely that the group would be partnered by some strategic investor in this project. He said more than revenues, it would lead upliftment of that area.
The demerger of the FMCG and bulk tea business was approved by shareholders on Monday at the EGM. Of the 100 shareholders who cast their votes, 91 voted in favour of the demerger.
The FMCG business, comprising batteries and packet tea, would be vested in Eveready Industries India and the bulk tea Eveready Company India to be renamed McLeod Russel (India) later.
Khaitan said B M Khaitan would be the chairman of both the companies. Deepak Khaitan would be vice chairman of the two companies and Aditya Khaitan would be managing director of Eveready Company (India) and on the board of Eveready Industries India.
Khaitan said opportunities in the tea business were looking up and the company would look at tapping new markets such as Egypt, Iran, Russia and Pakistan.
The bulk tea division now has 28 estates producing 42 million kg of tea as compared to 21 tea estates producing 25 million kg originally.
The import duty in Egypt was recently brought down from 30 per cent to 5 per cent. The company planned to invest Rs 10 crore (Rs 100 million) for upgradation of bushes.
On the batteries business, Khaitan said the company would increase capacity from 1.2 billion batteries to two billion batteries for an investment of Rs 20 crore (Rs 200 million).
The company was planning to add another product to its FMCG portfolio. Khaitan said, a team had been formed to identify the product.
