Uttarakhand drug company to sell ayurvedic products in open market

With Haridwar emerging as a new ayurveda hub, the government-backed Uttarakhand Cooperative Federation (UCF) has chalked out plans to expand its ayurvedic medicines business and set up two new plants to give the products of Baba Ramdev, Dabur and Vaidayanath a run for their money in the fast-growing global market.

UCF, which came into existence following the division of assets between Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, had two loss-making factories in 2004 - a soyabeen factory at Halduchaur and the Cooperative Drug Factory (CDF) at Ranikhet in the Kumaon region. UCF's annual turnover in 2012-13 was Rs 218.56 crore, with its main business being ayurvedic medicines, chemical and organic fertilisers, and wheat and rice procurement.

UCF also earned a dividend of Rs 6 crore on its Rs 25-crore investment in Iffco, which is helping it to meet growing expenditures like employee salaries under the Sixth Pay Commission.

The two factories ran up large losses, especially after the government gave all UCF employees the benefits of the pay commission. This forced the management to think of fresh strategies.

"The increase in pay package was putting a big burden on the two factories. So we decided to expand our business and sell our products in the open market," said Pramod Kumar Singh, chairman of UCF. In 2012-13, the losses of the Halduchaur factory -which also has a 36,000-tonne warehouse - touched Rs 141 crore. Similarly, CDF Ranikhet lost around Rs 105 crore in 2012-13.

Until now, UCF had been selling its ayurvidic medicines only in the government sector through a bidding process. "Since we are now going whole hog in the open market, we will also build the CDF brand to improve our image," said Singh.