Ascent Meditech to invest Rs 100 cr in new unit at Valsad

Orthopedic soft goods, mobility, wound-care products manufacturer Ascent Meditech, which operates under the Flamingo label, is investing Rs 100 crore to set up a new manufacturing unit at Valsad in Gujarat. This will be the company's sixth manufacturing unit which will come in up in two phases.

"We already have five manufacturing units in Silvasa producing orthopedic soft goods, mobility, wound-care and healthcare products. We are setting up our sixth unit in Valsad in two phases with an investment of Rs 100 crore," Ascent Meditech founder and managing director Rajiv Mistry told PTI. The first phase will be operational in May 2020, while the second phase is expected to be operational in March 2021.

The project will be funded through internal accruals, and part debt, he said, adding "we will also use a portion of the funds we raised earlier this year from the British private equity fund LeapFrog." The company manufactures over 350 products and export to around 50 countries including the Middle East, Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia. "After the commissioning of the new unit we will explore larger markets like the US, Indonesia and Vietnam," Mistry added.

Currently, 20 percent of the volume comes from exports and the rest from domestic sales. We plan to take this to 25:75 going forward, he said. The organized players net around Rs 7,000 crore or only 25 percent of the total market, which is growing at 18-20 percent. Of this OSG is a Rs 2,000-crore market, wound-care Rs 3,000 crore, heat belts Rs 1,000 crore market and mobility is Rs 500 crore market, he said, adding his company enjoys 7-8 percent share of the organized market.

"We expect to double our market share in the next three years," he said..