History of Sterling Biotech Ltd.
The Comp. was incorporated on 23rd March 1985, in Mumbai , India as Pluto Exports and Consultants Limited & obtained its Certificate of Commencement of Business on 19 April 1985 under the Companies Act 1956. The Comp. changed its name to Sterling Tea & Industries Limited on 24 June 1991 when it entered the tea plantation business. Its name was a subsequently changed to Sterling Biotech Limited with effect from 29 March registered with the Registrar of Companies in Maharashtra & its registered office is at 43, Atlanta, Nariman Point, Mumbai 400 021
Mr. Nitin Sandesara, Chairman & Managing Director of Company together with his father Mr. J.C. Sandesara, joined the Board of Directors of Comp. in 1989. The present Promoters were amongst the original investors of Company, & have held shares since 1985.
The Comp. is an existing, profit making, dividend paying Company engaged in tea plantation having over 600 acres of tea gardens & tea processing with an installed capacity of 3200 tpa in District Nilgiris, Tamilnadu. The Company performance since commencement of operations in 1989 has shown impressive growth with turnover & net profits increasing from Rs.279 lakhs & Rs.55.63 lakhs in 1989-90 to Rs.2402 lakhs & Rs.643 lakhs respectively in the year 1993-94. Hence the turnover has increased by 8.6 times & net profit by 11.6 times during last four years. The Comp. has paid uninterrupted dividends since 1990 from 20% to 50% & also issued 1:1 bonus during 1991.
A rights issue aggregating to Rs. 200 million & public issue aggregating to Rs.585 million took place in 1995.
Sterling began its operations as a trading Comp. , changing its focus in 1991 to the manufacture of tea. In 1991 when Sterling first entered the tea business, turnover & net profit were Rs.28 million & Rs.5 million respectively. The tea operations experienced substantial growth during the early 1990s. In 1995 as part of an overall growth strategy Sterling management identified gelatine as a high niche & a high growth area, & in 1997 the Comp. diversified into the production of pharmaceutical grade gelatine. The Comp. decided to focus on gelatine production based on the rationale that not only was gelatine in short supply, but it also has tremendous growth potential due to its end-use applications being in the growth industries of food, pharmaceuticals and photography.
The Comp. successfully commissioned its first gelatine production production facility, with an installed capacity of 2,200 MT, at Karakhadi, Dist Vadadora in 1997 & soon reached 100% capacity utilization. Capacity was increased to 2600 MT pa in the July 1999 and further augmented to 4000 MT pa by July 2000, an increase of 80% in the space of 2 years. The facilities were operational at near or more than 100% capacity utilization. The Comp. also entered into a technical collaboration in 1995 with Croda Colloids Limited of United Kingdom, one of world leading gelatine manufacturers.
The success of gelatine business, together with governmental policies designed to liberalise the business environment contributed to a shift in the Company overall business strategy. As a result of the governmental policies, the Comp. anticipated that tea industry would suffer extreme competition & slow growth. Accordingly the Company decided to exit the tea business entirely, & this was sold off in 2000.
In 1995, a rights & public issue took place to part finance capital expenditure plans for setting up the Company first gelatine production facility. The facility proposed was 2,200 MT p.a. The Industrial Finance Corporation of India, at the time a leading Indian financial institution, appraised the project. Sterling entered the gelatine market during 1996-1997 with the establishment of its state of the art facility plant for manufacture of pharmaceutical grade gelatine at Karakhadi, Dist Vadodara, with an initial capacity of 2,200 MT p.a.. which reached 100% capacity utilization in 2001.
The Comp. raised the capacity to 2,600 MT p.a in July 1999. By this time, profitability was increasing & accordingly capacity was further augmented to 4,000 MT p.a by July 2000. Thus, capacity for gelatine production was augmented by more than 80% [from 2,200 MT to 4,000 MTs] in the space of 2 years. The plants are also operational at near or more than 100% capacity utilization.
To further its vision of being one of top 5 companies in the global production of gelatine, in June 2000 the Comp. initiated an expansion facility with an installed capacity of 4,200 MT p.a. at the same location in Dist Vodadara, India. This facility also concentrates on pharmaceutical grade gelatine & is able to derive benefits of scale. The Comp. has an installed capacity of 8,200 MT p.a. to produce pharmaceutical grade gelatine.
Following the completion of this facility, the Comp. now considers itself the largest producer of pharmaceutical grade gelatine in Asia, a claim which is based on industry knowledge & the nature of the gelatine industry.
Quality Certifications.
In accordance with the Company policy to achieve & maintain the highest standards of quality the Comp. has the following quality certifications.
Kosher Certifications - this certifies that the Jewish population can consume Sterling gelatine & that the inputs used for gelatine production are in accordance with the religious standards of Jewish community.
Ifanka Certification - this is required for Halal certification, which certifies that the gelatine is manufactured using Halal-defined processes & can be used by Muslim population.
HACCP [Hazardous Analysis & Critical Control Points] Cerification - certifies the manufacturing process with the highest & most consistent quality & safety of product.
ISO 9001 - this certifies that the production process is in accordance with standards laid down by International Standards Organizations.
ISO 14001 - this certifies that the environment management system conforms to the Environmental Management System Standard.
EDQM [European Directorate for Quality of Medicares] - This is a certification issued by European Directorate for quality of Medicine that is essential for selling pharmaceutical gelatine in the European Union, The Phamacopoeia is a set of guidelines & standards of the production of medicines issued by EDQM & has the force of law. EDQM audits the producers for conformity, In addition the producers must provided a quantitive BSE risk assessment.
THE MAIN OBJECTS OF THE COMPANY
The main objects of Comp. as set out in its Memorandom of Association are as under.
1. To carry on the business as manufacturers, researchers, developers, creators, buyers, sellers, importers, exporters, refiners, dealers, agents, wholesalers, retailers & distributors of all kinds of biotechnology products & all products developed or to be developed in the future using biotechnology & other related & non-ralated btechnologies including technologies that may be developed in the future, propriety medicines, pharmaceuticals, health foods & foods of all kinds, all kinds & forms of organic & inorganic chemicals including gelatine of all kinds & forms, including its amalgams, derivative & by products, persticides, acids, alkalies, natural and synthetics waxes, dyes, paints, pigments, oils, varnishes & resigns, to carry on the business of manufacturing bioinformatics diagonistics tools, all medical engineering equipments along with software developments & tools relating to genome, genomic, genotype, genetic or any areas relating to genetic engineering & to patent all original research, procedures, methods products & by-products, technologies and software developed by Company.
1A To export & promote exports of commodities, corps minerals, raw materials, semi & manufactured products, goods & ware plant, machinery, tools & equipment, fabrics made from natural or artificial fibers or a blend of natural & artificial fibers, garments, apparel, foods & beverages, canned provisions, raw cotton manufactures, raw jute & jute manufactures, raw wool & wool manufactures, raw silk an silk manufactures, textile made out of natural & artificial fibers handloom textiles, cottage industries, were cotton waste, tea, minerals an ores, ferrous & non-ferrous metals, metal manufactures, coffee, tobacco & tobacco manufactures, spices, shoes & leather ware timber, automobiles & trucks, diesel engine, pumps, agricultural implements, electric motors, transformers, switchgears & accessories, building, hardwares, furniture, electrical appliances, paper & paper products, machinery & machine tools, dyes, chemicals, colours, paints varnishes, books & stationery items glassware, pottery, tableware, scientific instruments, bicycles auto scooters, automibile & truck spare parts, synthetic products, rubber manufactures, tyre, cords, tubes, typewriters, refrigerators, office steel furniture, equipment and appliances & other articles, products, material & substances to all parts of world, particularly, non-traditional commodities to non-traditional destinations.
2. To import all types of commodities, crops, minerals, raw materials, semi & manufactured products, Goods & ware, plant machinery, tools and equipment, all types of fabrics made from natural or artificial fibres of blend of natural & artificial fibres, garments, apparel, feeding stuffs, foods & beverages, canned provisions & to carry on any trading or manufacturing business or operations & deal in all types of materials, minerals, substances, products, goods, articles and things.
3. To act as financial consultants, management consultants & provide advice, services, consultancy in industrial public relations, scientific, technical, direct & indirect tax action & other leview, statistical, accountancy, quality control & data processing.
SUBSIDIARY OF THE COMPANY At present the Comp. doesn't have any subsidiary.
2002
-Sterling Biotech commissions expansion project for manufacture of Gelatin.
-Sterling bags an export order for supply of Gelatin.
2003
-Sterling Biotech obtains Rs.5.5cr order for supply of gelatin for Cardiac Health Inc.
-Sterling changes its Biotech symbol from 'STERLINTEA' to 'STERLINBIO'.
-GDR Issue of Comp. listed on Luxemburg Stock Exchange .
-Issued Global Depository Receipts [GDRss] worth $14.85 million in the international markets.
- Closed the issue of 2,250,000 Global Depository Receipts [GDRss] each representing 6 underlying each shares of Rs.2/- each Offer Price of US$6.60 each aggregating to US$ 14,850,000/-
2004
-Sterling Biotech acquires gelatine biz of Rallis for Rs 47 cr
-HSBC Financial Services [M.E.s] Limited acquires 1,67,300 shares amounting to 0.1954% of total paid up capital of Sterling Boitech Ltd.
- Delists equity shares of Comp. from the Vadodara Stock Exchange [VSEs] with effect from August 16, 2004
2008
-Sterling Biotech Limited has appointed Shri Chetan J. Sandesara as Joint Managing Director of Comp. w.e.f. July 15, 2008.
