Overview

Sugar is a key component of our agri-business portfolio. Our sugar operations functioned as an independent company within our Group until March 2004 when they were merged in DSCL.

These sugar operations commenced in 1998 in central Uttar Pradesh, where the first sugar mill was established through a green field project at Ajbapur. We later acquired an existing sugar mill in the same region, at Rupapur, in 2003 emerging as a major sugar producer in central Uttar Pradesh.Two new sugar mills at Hariawan and Loni were commissioned this year. We now have a combined installed capacity of 33,000 TCD (tonnes crushed daily) and a power generating capacity of 94.5 MW, with an exportable surplus of 51.5 MW for the grid. All our sugar plants are self-sufficient to meet their own power requirements from bagasse. We are also exporting power to the UP state grid.

Manufacturing Overview :

We have four sugar production facilities,at Ajbapur, Rupapur, Hariawan and Loni located in central UP. All of our production facilities are completely self-sufficient with access to reliable captive power, based on bagasse which is a sugar by-product, and are equipped with modern equipment and machinery. These in turn have made us one of the most efficient crushers and producers of sugar in the country.

We established our Ajbapur facility as a greenfield project in 1998. It is a new and modern plant with high levels of automation and process control systems similar to a chemical plant. Resultantly, this plant's output is of premium quality, commanding the highest prices in our market region. It is also one on India's fastest growing factory in terms of cane area, crushing and recovery, and capacity. At the time of inception, this plant had a capacity of 3,125 TCD which has since been expanded to 10,500 TCD. The plant has a captive power capacity of 38 MW which is used for meeting its own requirements as well as export to the UP state grid.In addition to having in place a technologically superior factory, we also have strong business processes in place for continuous improvement of operating efficiency parameters. Our Ajbapur plant is supported by ERP resources (SAP R/3) as well as TQM and institutional bidding initiatives. It is the first sugar factory in the country to receive ISO 9000, ISO 14000, and OHSAS 18000 certifications simultaneously.

Our Rupapur unit was acquired by us in 2003. This factory had been established in 1996, with its main machinery and plant supplied by Krupp which is well-regarded for superior technology. This plant's capacity was increased after acquisition from 3500 TCD to 6500 TCD.

Two new sugar mills were commissioned in February 2007 at Hariawan and Loni taking our total capacity to 33,000 TCD and making us the fifth largest player in UP.

Raw material

Sugar cane procured from growers around our factories is the primary input for our sugar operations. Over 2, 00,000 farmers supply us with cane. In order to facilitate the procurement of sugarcane, we have set-up over 250 cane centres at our sugar mills.This has significantly reduced the time taken in getting cane to our manufacturing facilities. The average distance covered by growers is around 5-7 kilometres and within 48 to 72 hours cane reaches our factories after harvesting.

In order to ensure sustainable supply of high quality sugarcane, we invest time and resources towards training farmers and helping them in improve their yields as well as recovery. We also assist farmers with soil fertility mapping for judicious fertiliser usage. Our team of experts have also been engaged in popularising the use of bio-ferlisers, modern agricultural inputs, and other plant protection measures among cane growers, resulting in improved yields per hectare. With a view to improve post-harvest recovery, we help farmers with varietals propagation and replacement of low yield/low recovery varieties.

We have also implemented an assured irrigation scheme in our cane areas, providing irrigation means to ensure irrigation to the entire cane crop that we ultimately procure and use for sugar production. This is also helping us popularise cost-effective irrigation methods within the farming community.

Our efforts towards ensuring long-term, good quality cane supply are augmented by our participation in infrastructure development for facilitating cane supplies, including construction of road networks, providing means of transportation of cane, and assisting in the computerisation of the local banking operations.

Recognising farmers as our principal partners in progress, our operating philosophy is to enhance the economic status of sugarcane farmers while pursuing our own growth objectives.. We believe that our trust-based relations with farmers built on mutual respect and understanding is an intangible asset that strengthens the overall operating profile of our sugar business and allows us to also extend to them our other agri-business offerings.