Gujarat Warehousing Corporation shuts 20 centres, stalls expansion

Faced with competition from private players, the Gujarat State Warehousing Corporation has put its expansion plans on the backburner.

The state-owned company has closed down 20 centres across the state.

“The entry of private companies in the sector have increased competition for us. Our revenues decreased by Rs 4 crore in 2006-07. The situation is not likely to improve in the current year either. Hence we have decided to have a re-look at our expansion,” says A.K. Rakesh, chairman of GSWC.

The profits plummeted to Rs 77.57 lakh in 2006-07 from Rs 3.49 crore in previous year.

According to him, agencies like Nafed, Gujcomasol and CCI have not procured heavily from the market resulting in low volumes in the GSWC store houses.

The storage in state run warehouses have reduced y-o-y by 66.90 per cent in 2006-07.

The corporations income went down to Rs 5.02 crore in the year as compared to Rs 9.16 crore in the previous year.

“What created more issues what the fact that we increased our storage charges on par with Central Warehousing Corporation. This led to further decrease in our business. But, GSWC offered rebate to customers for maintaining our income,” he says.

As a part of its expansion drive, the GSWC had planned to set up three more warehouses and a number of cold storages in the state.

However, given the present scenario, the state-owned company has decided to stall its expansion project.

The corporation has already closed down centres in Jetalpur, Lambha, Shahibaug, Diodar, Dhanera, Dugawada, Jagana and Diosi in Palanpur, Pathawada, Tharad, Gandhingar, Vijapur, Kukarwada, Rampura, Kamboi, Radhanpur, Dhansura, Modasa, Sathamba and Tintoi.