Sunshine Holdings keen on its own pharma plant but unclear policies in the way
View(s):Sunshine Holdings PLC (Sunshine) is in the process of evaluating the setting up its own pharmaceutical manufacturing plant, but is treading carefully as state policies are still unclear, a top official says. ”We haven’t made a concrete plan as the policies such as the buy-back agreements aren’t clear,” Vish Govindasamy, Chairman Sunshine told the Business Times. The newly-formulated National Medicinal Drug Regulatory Authority Bill contains provisions encouraging local manufacturers to start their plants, but details and nitty-gritty on this proposal are yet to be announced.
Sunshine is aggressive on its retail rollout and expansion of retail footprint is on the cards. “We want to open 26 more stores by FY18 and the emphasis is on growing high margins in Wellness and Beauty segments while focusing on superior customer service,” the chairman said.
“In Healthcare, we want to continue the growth momentum and there’ll be new agencies launched along with one new retail outlet.” In their FMCG segment, the company wants to expand distribution and do a product portfolio rationalisation.
During the quarter Healthcare overtook agriculture to become the largest contributor to group top line with a contribution of 43 per cent against 38 per cent, previously. On the other hand, palm oil segment which is the largest contributor to Sunshine’s bottomline saw margins contracting to 42 per cent from 52 per cent as a result of a dip in palm oil prices. In the Packaging business, Sunshine wants to focus on new export orders and there’s a strong order book with high plant utilisation for 4Q, he said.
There’re two new plants under construction in the energy sector bringing their total capacity to 7.2 Mega Watts. The tea segment which made net losses in Q1 FY 16 and Q2 FY 16 managed to record an Earnings Before Interest and Taxes (EBIT) of Rs. 62 million during Q3 FY 16. Cutting down on output and focusing on improving quality assisted this segment to turn around as a profit generator during the period, analysts said.