The pair of blue elephants, familiar to lakhs of farmers in the country, look geared to do a gravity-defying act. From representing a public sector fertilizer company on the verge of closure, these elephants on the logo of Fertilisers And Chemicals Travancore Limited (FACT) may soon stand for a Mini Ratna corporation. The turnaround has happened in a short time and has been quite dramatic, prompting some to call it a miracle.
Veteran trade union leader and FACT Employees’ Association president K. Chandran Pillai says the company is in glory. It can now achieve greater heights.
The sentiment is echoed by other trade union forums as well as the team of officials and employees. They heap praise on the management team led by chairman and managing director Kishor Rungta, who took charge in August 2020 amid great uncertainty.
Mr. Rungta himself attributes turning around FACT to a combined effort. He said on Wednesday that the company, engaged in producing fertilizers and selling them, needed to take quick decisions to be in step with the market. “We had to decide where the buck stopped. A system was evolved in which decisions on issues such as price of products were taken in about two hours, whereas, in the past, the process took about two weeks,” he says.
The results are evident. FACT has achieved production levels of over a million tonne mark over the last two years. It hopes to repeat the performance during the current year too. During 2022-23, the global uncertainties apart, FACT achieved an operating profit of ₹613 crore as against ₹353 crore during the previous year. The company also achieved a turnover of ₹6,198 crore last year against ₹4,425 crore in the previous year.
The results are also evident in the stock market. FACT’s total market capitalisation has crossed ₹30,400 crore, putting it at the top of public sector fertilizer companies. The share price of the company (₹10 face value) now hovers over ₹470. The company is hopeful that the Mini Ratna status will be conferred on it.
Fertilizer production during last year crossed 1.07 million tonnes. FACT also restarted its caprolactam production in 2021 after a period of nine years. Production during 2022-23 was 45,000 tonnes. Fertilizer sales during the kharif season have picked up with the arrival of monsoon. This year, the company has planned for import of two lakh tonnes of fertilizers to meet the demand and has already imported 35,000 tonnes of NPK (nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium) during the year. More shipments are on the anvil.
FACT’s turnaround was helped to a large extent by the ₹1,000-crore timely help from the Union government in 2016 and proceeds to the tune of ₹960 crore during 2020 from sale of land. The money went into the company, meeting its immediate requirements and fuelling an expansion plan to add another five lakh tonne capacity. The project is nearing completion and is likely to go on stream in July 2024.
FACT is in a good position and workers have contributed their share to the performance of the company, says George Thomas, secretary general, FACT Workers’ Organisation. But he feels that the workers must be reasonably rewarded for their contributions.
Mr. Pillai feels that while FACT is in a good position now, it must look to expand activities by utilising land available to it so that future sustainability is ensured.
