Abbott's new Gujarat factory to be inaugurated tomorrow

Abbott currently sells 10 nutrition products in India and will initially manufacture at least six of these from the Jhagadia plant

Abbott Laboratories, the US-headquartered pharmaceutical and health care products company, is set to roll out its first greenfield facility in India with an investment of Rs 450 crore. The plant, coming up at Jhagadia in Bharuch district of Gujarat to make nutrition products, will be inaugurated by state Chief Minister Anandiben Patel on Thursday. The development comes soon after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pitch for ‘Make In India’ and also because it is in his home state.  

The facility has created 400 jobs, said top global executives of the company, here for the launch.

“We want to be closer to our customer in India. This plant will ensure we make our own products here, monitor their quality and cater to specific health needs of local communities,” said John Landgraf, executive vice-president, global nutrition. Adding, “We love the Prime Minister’s ‘Make in India’.”

Abbott currently sells 10 nutrition products in India and will initially manufacture at least six of these here. “These six are our high-value products, contributing 90-95 per cent of our total nutrition sales. Our current focus will be on these and we will expand the portfolio, depending on the need in the market,” said Amal Kelshikar, managing director, Abbott Nutrition. He said the new unit's manufacturing capacity was 40 million pounds annually, expandable. Abbott ramped up its investments and operations in India after acquiring Piramal Healthcare’s domestic formulations business in 2010. Since then, the company is at the top slot in the domestic pharma market, with a six to seven per cent share. The new plant is Abbott's third manufacturing facility in India. It has two pharma units, at Goa and Baddi (Himachal). The company also has two research and development facilities in India. One in Mumbai was acquired from Piramal and is dedicated for pharmaceutical R&D; the second one, in Bangalore, was set up in May 2012 and develops nutrition products.

Landgraf said the largest number of Abbott employees outside the US were in India. Globally, Abbott has presence in a little more than 150 countries, with 69,000 employees. In India, it has about 14,000.

The latest investment in the nutritional segment is expected to help the company expand in the segment. Nutrition is one of the major global businesses for Abbott.

The company plans to locally source 80% of the raw material for the new plant's products. So far, the company was importing most of these from their Singapore and European facilities.

On Wednesday, shares of Abbott India ended at Rs 3,058.40 on the BSE exchange, down 0.7% from Tuesday's close.