One more overseas sortie

There has been a healthy growth in Indian eating places of late, and the Nirula brothers are taking advantage of that. So they are once agai...

There has been a healthy growth in Indian eating places of late, and the Nirula brothers are taking advantage of that. So they are once again in an expansion mood for their quick-serve restaurant chain, Nirulas. They plan to invest Rs 100 crore for this, which will be used to create 125 restaurants and five three-star hotels by the year 2012. After a vigorous expansion into places like UP, Chandigarh, Jaipur, and Bhopal, the brothers are now keen to try for markets like Canada, the UK, the Gulf, South East Asia, the Far East by 2007, which they believe will give them almost guaranteed attendance in their eateries.

After watching domestic Indian rivals, like Pizza Corner getting into the franchising mode to have outlets all over the country 8212; something Nirulas once concentrated on in their early years 8212; they are now introducing meal combinations and modified recipes to suit taste buds of the people in each region where their restaurants are set up.

Always remaining one up on competitors seems to be their catchword. The brothers must feel they have learnt enough, finally, to handle their competitors within the country, considering they are now so very enthusiastic in heading for the foreign food markets. Let8217;s hope they haven8217;t forgotten that foreign competition can be much tougher to deal with.

Dr Reddy8217;s image makeover

Seemingly unperturbed after losing a legal battle to Pfizer, tycoon K. Anji Reddy is setting his on the specialty pharmaceuticals business which is now his main aspiration. He has thought up a whole new stratagem for the conversion of Dr Reddy8217;s Labs, from a generics major to a speciality pharma company. Thus beginning with the dermatology segment, new drugs are already being hatched in the tycoon8217;s labs. After the failure of the lawsuit with Pfizer, which saw a loss of Rs 11.5 crore, Reddy hasn8217;t been very high on luck. But now he seems to have put it all behind him, and shifted focus to the transformation of his company. What will give a great boost to his present scheme is his latest possession 8212; Trigeneses Therapeutics, a US-based company he acquired early this year. In the meantime, Reddy will have to watch out for rivals like Sun Pharmaceuticals, Ranbaxy, and Wockhardt who have made some lucrative acquisitions themselves. If the tycoon concentrates on future growth for Dr Reddy8217;s and less on patent wars, he probably will see Dr Reddy8217;s go way further in the race of Indian drugs!

Research results

After the recent Budget, where the pharma sector was largely left out in the cold, with nothing apart form health insurance actually offered as growth areas, most tycoons were left disappointed. But Desh Bandhu Gupta has recovered and has gotten busy on preparations for his investigative new drug IND application for an anti-TB molecule. He has also chosen to increase his research expenditure this year to Rs 120 crore, which is surprising considering last year he spent only Rs 40 crore on it. But in the meantime, too much of his attention is on increasing Lupin8217;s business in Japan, Australia and Latin America, through various alliances and partnerships. Overseas flings maybe profitable, but with an ambition for filing 14 new drug applications this year, perhaps inspired by Biocon, Gupta will have to work much harder now as only two of his applications have been filed so far and half the year is almost over. Rupees for research, after all, will have to be backed up by applications that win.

Dilip Cherian, runs a public affairs firm Perfect Relations. He is an economy watcher and a tycoon tracker. Your insider tales are welcome at:

8212; dilipcherianhotmail.com