Excl: Tata Chem's Brunner Mond eyes new biz
Business Standard — October 3, 2007

Brunner Mond, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tata Chemicals, is eyeing forward integration opportunities.

The company has set up a new ventures team, which would work under the supervision of John J Kerrigan, managing director, Brunner Mond (Europe).

Kerrigan said the idea was to leverage available assets within the company like unutilised land, established infrastructure and surplus power. The company was also weighing a wind energy project on the available land.

The possible new business areas were yet to be identified but Kerrigan said little innovation could be done on the products front and therefore it could mean new ventures for the company.

Kerrigan pointed out that the Tata Group was present across the supply chain in many of its businesses, and Brunner Mond would be able to perform some of the activities that its customers were in.

Brunner Mond's products — sodium carbonate, sodium bicarbonate, calcium chloride and associated alkaline chemicals- play a role in variety of industries like glass, detergents and biscuits to life-saving dialysis treatment and water purification.

Some of its soda ash cutomers are P&G, Akzo Nobel, Unilever, Saint Gobain while some its sodium biacarbonate customers are Sara Lee, P&G, GlaxoSmithKline and Lafarge.

The Tata Chemicals-Brunner Mond combine happens to be third largest producer of soda ash in the world with a capacity of three million tonne and the only manufacturer on three continents.

Tata Chemicals, in December 2005, acquired a controlling 63.5 per cent equity of Brunner Mond Group from Wayland Investments and Barclays Bank for 65 million pounds making it the third largest producer of soda ash after the US-based FMC and the Brussels-based Solvay Chemical.

The remaining 36.5 per cent was acquired through an open offer in March 2006 making Brunner Mond a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tata Chemicals.