Shreevar Kheruka
Vice Chairman, Managing Director & CEO
Dear Shareholders,
I am pleased to present, on behalf of our Board of Directors, the
Annual Report of the Company for the financial year ended March 31,2023.
The last year has been very eventful for Borosil across both our
business divisions:
• We started up our 2nd opal glass furnace of 42 Tons per day at
our Jaipur plant
• We started deploying capex for our borosilicate press furnace of
25 Tons per day, also at Jaipur. This is expected to be commissioned sometime during Q2 of
FY 2023-24
• We increased capacity for our pharmaceutical packaging plant in
Nashik
• In April 2023, we undertook an acquisition of 90%+ in Goel
Scientific Glass Works Limited
• We launched scores of new products across our consumer and
scientific division
• We upgraded our ERP to SAP S4 HAN A.
These were just some of the large initiatives we took across our front
and back end. Working on so many projects simultaneously would not be possible without the
competence and hard work of all members of our Borosil team. They work day and night with
an entrepreneurial spirit and always with the interests of our customers at the front and
centre of their vision. For this, I am extremely grateful and would like to thank all of
them from the bottom of my heart.
India's long term growth story seems to be getting even more
promising with many domestic and international factors in our favour. As evidenced by most
reports, India will remain one of the fastest growing large economies in the world in the
near future. This, along with the fast paced formalization of our economy, will lead to
stronger demand of our products in the future. Whether it is household items or scientific
research, our growing population will have needs that require substantial investments in
both these areas.
With the changing geopolitical environment, China+1 is now a reality
beyond the buzz-word. We see this in the demand for our products in various export
geographies that were previously closed for us. This is also an important development for
our manufacturing investments in India.
We delivered a good set of numbers on revenue growth with consolidated
revenue @"Rs 1027 crores up by 22% and PAT @"Rs 90crores up by 6% over the
previous year.
The last year posed some broader challenges for Borosil that led to a
decline in our margins. Specifically, the start-up of our 2nd opal furnace in Jaipur was
delayed owing to the global chip shortage and late delivery of machinery used in the
facility. As a result, we lost out significantly during the key festive quarter in our
consumer division. In addition to this, the sales of our pharmaceutical packaging had a
substantial dip after the Covid induced bump. This also impacted the margins of our
scientific division.
Finally, our decision to invest in the future both from a brand point
of view through advertising as well as from R&D point of view through product
development is likely to continue. This is our investment into the future and I expect it
to bear outsized returns over a period of time.
To summarize, I would like to say that our theme of people, customers
and technology will continue for the foreseeable future. I am quite bullish that the
efforts put by all our team members will power the growth of Borosil in India as well as
internationally.
I would like to thank all our stakeholders for their support throughout
the year. We hope to continue to add value in the lives of all those touched by us! I
would love suggestions for improvements or any feedback in general at
shreevar.kheruka@borosil.com