2 more wheelies

Leadership in the motorcycles segment, however, does not make the Munjals complacent about their ambitions in the scooter market. The planned entry seems well 8216;on course8217;. We may well see Hero Honda scooters on Indian roads in the next two years. Planning to be present in both the scooters and the scooterette markets, the Munjals8217; overall strategy is to have a footprint in all the two-wheeler segments.

The strategy would certainly help the company to leverage the Hero Honda brand name in an entirely new category.

Active ingredience

The last few months have seen hectic activity in the Indian pharma sector. Pankaj Patel8217;s Zydus Cadila, after entering into a marketing alliance with Italian pharma major Zambon last month, has moved south in search of strategic partners.

The company has entered into a joint venture JV with the Mayne Group of Australia to build and operate plants to manufacture anti-cancer finished products and active pharmaceutical ingredients API. If the Zambon alliance was just meant to enable Cadila to effectively distribute its products in the European market better, the JV with Mayne appears to have a larger agenda involving both manufacturing and marketing.

The product patent regime is certainly making Indian pharma companies go the extra yard to explore new opportunities across shores. Joint ventures are all about marriage of competencies.

The new JV quite rightly seeks to match the strategic advantages of both the players 8212; Cadila8217;s expertise in handling complex manufacturing processes for APIs and a range of finished dosage forms and Mayne8217;s strength with specialty pharma products in the field of oncology.

The other strengths that would mesh well are the former8217;s ability to establish and operate world-class pharma manufacturing projects and the latter8217;s global sales and marketing capabilities.

Mayne8217;s regulatory expertise across markets would also come in handy for Cadila as regards the patent regime.

Labroo makes clear his plans

B.M. Labroo will always be a tycoon with big plans. For now, after being the largest manufacturer of automotive glass, he plans to set up the country8217;s single-largest integrated glass plant. This will have a capacity of 700 metric tonnes per day and will be located at Roorkee in Uttaranchal. This integrated facility will produce 10 different kinds of glass.

Apart from that, the tycoon has plans to export automotive glass to Europe by the beginning of this year. Although Asahi India Glass was once involved in export activities, they were discontinued, for reasons the tycoon wouldn8217;t share with anyone. Labroo has had to contend with adverse economic factors like high air freight costs, power problems etc.

But now things have improved and all that is behind him. He must be having high expectations about his Uttaranchal plant; that it will provide him richer dividends to make up for those not so successful times. With a 19 per cent increase in gross sales recently, Labroo8217;s hopes that his Uttaranchal unit will take this growth higher must be stronger than ever.

What is on the tycoon8217;s side is the current trend of customers preferring glass instead of wood, especially in the construction sector.

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