Abdos Labtech, part of the Abdos Group engaged in plastic labware, is slated to infuse around Rs. 73 crore for expanding manufacturing and marketing reach over the next 2-3 years. The company has also slated three new product launches.
“The funding would be a combination of internal accruals and bank debt. The market is opening with promising growth opportunities and this has led us to look at expansions”, Shrey Agarwal, director, marketing, Abdos Labtech, told Pharmabiz.
The company has lined up three key products slated for launch by the second quarter of fiscal 2015-16. These are Filter tips which prevent pipettor contamination from aerosols or fluid spray. Specialised Petri Dish is a 90mm petri dish of different compartments. Low Retention Tips are designed to reduce sample retention. These products will be displayed at PharmaLytica 2014 held in Bengaluru from September 25-27, 2014.
While Specialised Petri Dish will be introduced in January 2015, the Low Retention Tips and Filter tips are available from this year-end and second quarter of fiscal 2016 respectively. The company is also known for its range of plastic racks and boxes to provide efficiency in storage solutions at research labs and introduced regularly, he added.
All these products are designed in India but developed using moulds imported from Europe. Its production plant at Roorkee manufactures latest version of essential labware equipment including disposables, reusables, organisers and utilities. “We look at the end-user application, then engage in an exercise to create product and conduct required tests,” he said.
There is a huge competition for Abdos in the Indian and international market as it competes not only with local players but multinational companies including Corning, Thermo Fischer and Sigma Aldrich. Much of the production for global players happens either in US, European Union and China. Therefore, we compete on pricing and product quality to be present in 26 countries with the objective to expand global market presence. To attract distributors in these markets, it participates in exhibitions and have various other engagement programs for customers. “Price, logistics support and services continue to be important factors to bag orders in these countries. US and EU account for 75 per cent of global market share for labware. India contributes around 3 per cent of the world’s plastic labware market,” said Agarwal.
For Abdos, filter tips is a value added and an established brand which is a revenue driver. Petri Dish generates more revenues than margins. Low Retention Tips is a high potential product responsible for its top line growth.
The company’s has a 110 personnel and with its expansions it would embark on hiring additional workforce. However, the challenge is to access the right talent in the lab ware sector said Abdos chief executive officer.