G C Burmans Son Joins Dabur Board

Amit Burman, son of late G C Burman, has joined the board of directors of Dabur India Ltd. He has been co-opted as an executive director on the board at its last meeting held recently.

Amit Burman said: "I have joined the board of Dabur India and am trying to familiarise myself with functions such as finance, administration and HRD."

G C Burman, who was vice-chairman of Dabur India, was slated to take over the chairmanship of the company from his cousin, V C Burman, in September this year. But he passed away a few days before the due date. At the moment, V C Burman continues as the chairman of the company. Anand Burman, son of Dabur India chairman emeritus A C Burman, has been made the vice-chairman and is slated to take over from his uncle.

At present, Anand Burman is looking after Dabur Oncology Plc, a wholly owned subsidiary of Dabur India in the United Kingdom. The company has been set up to focus on the general oncology market in Europe, joint research and production of drugs in small batches for clinical research. The company is slated to begin commercial production by the year-end.

At the moment, Amit Burman is looking after Dabur Foods, a 100 per cent subsidiary of Dabur India, as chief executive.

The company's flagship product is the Real range of fruit juices. The other brands include Hommade and Lemoneez. The company is expected to clock a turnover of around Rs 60 crore in 2001-02. It is projected to break even during the current financial year and wipe out the accumulated losses in another three years.

At the time of the new economy boom, Amit Burman had also invested in a clutch of websites including smartbahu.com and emedlife.com. While he has sold out smartbahu.com, he has converted the other Internet ventures into offline businesses such as medical transcription and medical insurance services.

Amit Burman's inclusion into the Dabur India board raises the number of Burman family members on the board from five to six. The others are A C Burman, V C Burman, Anand Burman, Pradip Burman and Sidharth Burman. In addition, the board has three executives and eight directors. The company's board has 17 members.