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Atul Ltd | Annual Report 2012-13
Dear Shareholders,
As a company founded by a legendary Indian, Mr
Kasturbhai Lalbhai, Atul has
a rich legacy
characterised
by ethics, discipline, perseverance, excellence and larger
purpose. With this awareness, we pursued our tasks
passionately and imposed a demand on ourselves to
enhance the current performance of our Company and
build new foundations for its sustainable and purposeful
future.
World GDP
at US$ 72 tn in 2012, grew by about 3.2%
(4.0% in 2011) driven mainly by the USA and China in
terms of increase in absolute value and China, India and
Indonesia in terms of growth rate. The GDP of India at
US$ 1.8 tn in 2012-13 grew by 5.1% (6.9% in 2011-12),
that of the USA at US$ 15.7 tn grew by 2.2% in 2012 (1.8%
in 2011) and that of Euro Area at US$ 12.2 tn declined by
0.6% in 2012 (+1.4% in 2011).
World Chemical Industry
, with a size of US$ 3.4 tn
in 2011 grew by about 3.3% in 2012 (4.8% in 2011).
Chemical Industry of India at US$ 83 bn in 2011 grew
only by 6% in 2012 (7% in 2011) despite immense
potential. We reaffirm our resolve to grow our Company
bigger and better and will persevere in our own small
way to reclaim a promising future for India.
Our Company has delivered improved
results for 2012-
13
as under:
¾
Sales increased from
`
1,746 cr to
`
1,964 cr
¾
EBITDA increased from
`
215 cr (12.3%) to
`
266 cr
(13.5%)
¾
Profit before tax increased from
`
122 cr to
`
192 cr
¾
Gross working capital decreased from 146 days to
141 days
¾
RoCE increased from 17% to 21%
What is more satisfying is that our Company has
consistently been able to improve its performance since
2003-04 despite testing times. I take this opportunity
to recognise the perseverance, determination and
commitment of every member of Atul family who is
putting in his (her) best and is keen to
achieve new
mile-stones
.
The Board recommended
dividend
of 60% (45% in
2011-12) to commemorate the diamond jubilee of
operations on March 17, 2012. Notably, the year also
marked the 110
th
birth anniversary of Mr Balwantrai
Mazumdar who diligently developed our Company in
the first 25 years of its long history with foresight and
care. We are pleased with the recommendation of a
higher dividend.
Our Company may have been able to perform even
better, but for the closure of its manufacturing
facility in
Atul
for almost a month because of
malfunctioning of its main effluent treatment plant
and its consequential effects. We took this not as a
defeat, but preparation for the future; we undertook
new projects at Ankleshwar and Valsad Complexes to
further improve our performance in this vital area of
environment protection
.
Further, we took up about 500
Key Initiatives
mainly
in the following areas:
¾
Receivables and inventories
¾
Yields, solvents, utilities, pricing and products from
pollutants
¾
Time cycle, debottlenecking, expansions and new
products
¾
Safety, environment, Standard Operating
Procedures (SOPs)
¾
Performance management and training and
development
The above initiatives will help bring greater focus on
efficiency, sustainability and growth, with resultant
impact on the performance of our Company. We are
developing SOPs in every area so as to institutionalise
the learning process and encapsulate and methodically
Letter to the Shareholders