CHAIRPERSON’S SPEECH

 

Ladies and Gentlemen,

With deep respect to Shri Bhadrashyam Harshad Kothari whose principles and value continues to guide us.

It gives me pleasure to welcome you all to the 56th Annual General Meeting of your Company. The company’s Annual Report and Audited Financial Statements for the year ended 31st March 2017 have been with you for some time now and with your permission, I shall take them as read.

As I had indicated in my previous year speech, the financial year 2016-2017 has witnessed as the better year for the sugar industry and also for your company, clocking a net profit of Rs.9.47 Crores as against Rs.1.18 Crores in the last year.

The increase in the profit was on account of increased crushing activities, higher sugar price and also reduction in cost on account of modernization of plant, resulting in improved efficiency of distillery plant and reduction in energy consumption as indicated in the director’s report.  The full benefit of modernisation will be evinced in the current financial year.

I am glad to inform the shareholders that the Board of Directors after careful consideration have recommended a dividend of Rs.0.50 per share (5%) subject to your approval at this meeting.

Due to five consecutive years of drought, the sugar production in Tamil Nadu is expected to fall to around 1 million metric tons in the sugar year 2016-17. This is likely to fall further to around 0.55 million metric tons in the sugar year 2017- 2018.

The sugar production of your company for the current financial year is expected to be lower by around 40% compared to previous year, this anticipation is due to severe drought conditions prevailing in all parts of Tamil Nadu. 

We are happy to inform you that your company has imported 5280 Metric tons of raw sugar under duty free scheme announced by the central Government and completed the processing and is currently being sold in the market.

Tamil Nadu continues to face drought conditions and in order to improve the cane availability, your company has taken up several progressive measures like drip irrigation system, innovative seed planting & cultivation and implementing a scientific method of cane cultivation.

These methods not only give your company a benefit by ensuring cane availability but will also benefit the farmers by increasing their revenue from the sugar cane crop.

On behalf of the Board I would like to thank our farmers, the government, our suppliers, bankers, customers, employees and other business associates for their continued support to the Company. The management on its part would continue its efforts towards enhancing stakeholder value.

Thank you

With warm regards,
Nina B Kothari
Chairperson
Chennai
8th September, 2017