Stokvis Tapes buys Prostick

Plans units in Pune and Chennai

Adhesive tapes major Stokvis Tapes BV Netherlands, has acquired Pune-based Prostick Adhesive Tapes.

The Dutch firm has set up Indian holding company Stokvis India and plans to start two manufacturing units, one in Hinjawadi, Pune and the other one in Chennai in the next one year's time.

Stokvis is a Euro 100-million company and has presence in 14 countries in Europe and a unit in Shanghai, China.

Announcing the deal, the directors of the Pune firm, Gurudas Nulkar and Satish Khare said, the new company will aim at opportunities in the original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) space for mobile phone handset makers as well as automobile makers for supplying high quality self adhesive industrial tapes. They however declined to disclose the deal value.

"Stockvis globally works with telecom majors such as Nokia, Erricson, Siemens and Motorola, as well as all automobile majors Volkswagon, Hyundai and BMW, and the Indian operations will get the advantage of the existing relationships," they said.

Currently, Prostick supplies tapes to automobile companies such as Tata Motors, Bajaj Auto as well as to electronics major LG Electronics' Pune mobile handset plant.

The Chennai unit will be particularly focusing on Nokias' handset manufacturing plant coming up there and its tier-I suppliers, while the Pune unit will give a thrust to its automobile OEMs business, Nulkar said.

He said that the company expects to expand business as other handset makers too, plan to set up manufacturing bases in India. In addition, car makers such as Audi, Skoda, BMX plan to set up assembly lines in the country.

Stokvis will invest $2.5 million to set up factories in Chennai and Pune. The factories are expected to be operational within 18 months.

About 70 per cent investment will go towards the Chennai plant, which will employ 100 people to begin with, while the rest is marked for the Pune unit, which will staff about 30 people and operate mainly as a marketing office, Nulkar said.

The projected turnover for Stokvis is Rs 60 crore at the end of two years, as both the plants will get operational by then, Nulkar informed.