West Coast Paper Mills Ltd

West Coast Paper Mills (WCPM), is the flagship Company promoted by S.K. Bangur Group and one of the leading integrated pulp and paper mills in Indian Industry established on March 25th, 1955. The Company has two business activities, Paper & Paper Board at Dandeli and Optical Fibre Cable at Mysore. The Company's Dandeli Plant is integrated Pulp & Paper Plant and produce various type of quality Paper & Paper Board. This caters to needs of innumerable industries in printing, writing, publishing, stationary, notebooks and packaging sectors in India. The Company's swing manufacturing facility enables the Company to produce diversified range of products, which has been a source of strength to keep in line with the market demand. The Company strongly believes on continuous improvement in product quality, reduction in cost and environment management. The Company is ISO 90012015, ISO 14001-2015 FSC (R) & OHSAS 18000-2007. The Company's Mysore Plant produces Optical Fibre Cable which cater requirement of telecom sector of India. Apart from paper, the company is also into manufacture & sale of Optical Fibre Cable and Jelly Filled Telephone cables. WCPM's Paper Division is located at Dandeli in Karnataka and Cable Division in Mysore, Karnataka. Further, the company owns six windmills with an installed capacity of 1.75 MW in Tamil Nadu for power generation.and majority of this wind power is supplied to Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TEB). The Company has a telecom manufacturing plant in Mysore. The Company supplies its products through dealers, who in turn sell it to reputed converters, publishing houses and end users. WCPM's paper division at Dandeli consists an paper mill with an installed capacity of 1.57 lakh MTPA and a 28 MW cogeneration power plant. The product mix of WCPM's paper division includes writing, printing & packing paper. The company which has raised the paper capacity by 18000 tonnes per annum is presently engaged in further raising the paper capacity to 163750 tpa by FY 2002-03. The Cable Division i.e Sudharshan Telecom came into existence in 1996 by setting up a plant to manufacture Optical Fibre Cable(OFC). Latter in 2001 the company set up facility to produce Jelly Filled Telephone Cable(JFTC). Currently the cable division has an installed capacity to produce 83,500 Kms of OFC and 15,42,000 Ckm of JFTC. Sumitomo Electric Industries of Japan and John Royale & Sons of USA are the technology providers for Sudarshan Telecom. This state of the plant at Mysore is capable of producing armoured and aerial types of OFC in addition to the underground duct burial type cables with a fibre count upto 40 fibres. Expansion, Modernisation and Diversification Programme for the Paper Division at Dandeli has been taken up with a cost of Rs. 214.50 crores (of which 65% had been completed by the end of 2001-02). In 2000-2001, the company has ISO 9001 certification from Det Norske Veritas, the Netherlands. During last quarter of 2001-02, the new 33000 TPA Duplex Board Machine was commissioned by the company and the company looks forward to increase the market share in the duplex board segment in the near future. During the year 2003-04, the Company completed its ongoing expansion programme for the the Paper Division at Dandeli in Karnataka at a cost of Rs. 230.14 crores. In 2004-05, the Company became self-sufficient in the generation of its total power requirements of 38.64 MW through sources like, 24.80 MW of thermal capacity, 2 MW from DG sets and 11.84 MW from furnace oil-based generators. During the year 2004-05, the Company continued its expansion/ upgradation programme for the paper division at Dandeli, implementing various projects like basis weight and moisture control system of duplex board machines with the objective to improve the quality of duplex board, replacement of digester number VII with a higher capacity substitute, steam and condensate system for PM III to reduce consumption of steam. The equipments such as drum chipper for wood chipping, 15.5 MW turbo generator set, disc filter for duplex board machines and Blow heat recovery and steam condensate recovery system for digesters were under various stages of installation. These projects will be completed and commissioned during the current financial year. In 2005-06, the Company commissioned a 15.5 MW turbine, partly replacing its dependence on high-cost power from the DG sets, and accounting for 24% of its annual power requirement. The Company also stabilised the operation of the chlorine dioxide plant in 2005-06. In 2006-07, the Company invested in a 15.5 MW, bleed, extraction cum condensing TG set to replace old inefficient TG sets to reduce specific steam consumption for power generation and to improve cogeneration. During the year 2006-07, the Company initiated two new systems - 'New Condensate Recovery System' and the 'Blow Heat Recovery System' and reported a better utilisation of steam and heat from the cooking process. Control cable worth Rs. 1.26 crore was manufactured and sold in 2009-10. During the year 2010-11, the Company took a decision to restart the use of copper telephone cable infrastructure with marginal investments to manufacture control cables, railway signalling and quad cables. Accordingly, all the required balancing equipment was installed and obtained BIS approval for manufacturing control cable and approval from Railways for manufacturing of signalling and quad cables. The Company started getting orders for control, signalling and quad cables. The Company further extended Inter Corporate Deposit of Rs. 17.40 crores to Shree Rama Newsprint Limited (SRNL ) (total Rs. 51.05 crores) and Rs. 0.50 crore to Speciality Coating & Laminations Ltd. (total Rs. 4.14 crores) during FY 2013-14. The Company carried out strategic acquisition of International Paper APPM Limited (IPAPPM). Pursuant to Share Purchase Agreement signed dated 29 May 2019, the Company acquired on 29 October 2019, 55% of the paid up share capital of IPAPPM by 13902025 equity shares of Rs. 10/- each from International Paper Investments (Luxembourg) S.a.rl and 7971496 equity shares of Rs. 10/- each from IP International Holding Inc. In terms of Letter of Offer dated 30 August 2019, the Company acquired on 11 October 2019, 6839879 equity shares of Rs. 10/- each representing 17.20% of the paid up share capital of IPAPPM from public shareholders. Consequently IPAPPM Limited has become a subsidiary of the Company having total shareholding of 72.20%. The name of IPAPPM Limited has been changed to Andhra Paper Limited (APL) w.e.f. 09 January 2020. Subsidiaries WCPM has two subsidiaries Speciality Coatings & Laminations Ltd(SPCL) is engaged in manufacture of Coated paper and paper boards i.e Chromo & Art Paper. SPCL's 15000 tpa plant is located at Gurgaon in Haryana. WCPM holds 65% stake in the equity of SPCL. Bharat Sugars, which is taking steps for setting up a 1250 TCD sugar mill with 7.5 MW cogeneration plant at Kesoralli village, Haliyal Taluka at a cost of Rs.48.47 Crores has become subsidiary of WCPM effective from Dec 3, 2002. No progress is achieved in implementation of this Sugar project. WCPM has acquired 59.79 % equity stake in Rama NewsPrint on Sep 2003. This gives the Bangur group the much needed economy of scale in the Indian Paper Industry. The company came out with a Rs 5.33-cr rights issue at a premium of Rs 30 in Oct.'91 to part-finance a modernisation / renovation programme for technology upgradation, diversification and energy conservation. Read More