Vetcare India, a cent per cent business arm of the Netherlands-based Provimi is looking out for potential acquisitions of small and medium-sized companies in India and in the sub-continent region.

The acquisitions are part of Vetcare India's inorganic growth strategy. It is viewing to acquire companies valued between Rs 30 crore and Rs 50 crore. However capital allocated for acquisitions and ensuing expansion plans were not disclosed. However, it was ascertained that funds would be sourced through internal accruals.

In an age of mergers and acquisitions, small-medium companies are clearly open to be bought-out to ease pricing pressure and shrinking sales under the current economic meltdown environment.

Vetcare is hoping to en-cash on some good deals that could boost its existing product portfolio or be able to strengthen its research pipeline with innovative offerings.

As part of the growth efforts, the company which is the largest player in the animal healthcare has devised a strategy to increase its focus in animal nutrition. There are immense growth prospects in preventive medicine and we are keen increase our product offering in this space, Dr Sandeep Karkhanis, managing director & CEO, Vetcare India told Pharmabiz.

Of the 160 products and 385 stock keeping units from the stables of Vetcare, currently 70 per cent are nutritional supplements. "We will now look at increasing the nutritional range to constitute 85 per cent and the remaining 15 per cent will address the therapeutic space, he added.

Present scene for veterinary drugs holds significant growth prospects. Efforts are on to increase its range in the pet foods and extruded products, said Dr Karkhanis.

Currently, company markets across India and is present in sub-continent region at Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. In Sri Lanka its manufacturing unit VetLanka was commissioned last year. We are also looking to offer our products in US and Europe and possibly make an assessment of the Japanese market too, said Dr Karkhanis.

The company, which registered earnings to the tune of Rs 208 crore last fiscal ending December 2009, hopes to clock revenues of Rs 240 crore this year and is confident of CAGR of 20 percent. Animal nutrition, pet foods and dairy products are expected to be the key growth drivers for Vetcare.

Going by India's stand in contract research services, Vetcare through its Nutri-Lab division is also gearing up to offer lab animal feeds to such companies.

Although Vetcare is recognized as the largest player in the segment, it faces competition in the therapeutics space from Pfizer, Virbac and Zydus in India.

The size of the Indian veterinary drug market which includes poultry, dairy and animal nutrition is Rs 3,500 crore and is growing at eight per cent. Of this the poultry segment is valued at Rs 1,000 crore, growing at 10 per cent. The dairy and nutrition segment is valued at Rs 2,500 crore with a growth rate of five to seven per cent.