Indian veterinary drug leader Vetcare, a division of Tetragon Chemie Pvt. Ltd has teamed-up with the European based Provimi, a world leader in animal nutrition to set up a 100 per cent subsidiary in Sri Lanka. The new entity, Provimi Vet Lanka Pvt. Ltd. near Colombo will be commissioned in April. An investment of Rs.3.5 crore has been made by the two companies. Currently, the Provimi-Vetcare joint venture stands at 90:10.

The new facility with a capacity of 300 tonnes will manufacture pre-mixes for poultry, dairy, swine and aqua.

The Sri Lankan subsidiary operations will help Vetcare capitalize on the core competencies of its partner, Provimi to increase its presence not only in India, but in the Asia Pacific, Sub- Saharan and South Asia regions. Provimi has an arrangement of central sourcing from accredited vendors and this will provide a commercial advantage. There is also the added advantage of the free trade agreement (FTA) between Sri Lanka and India, Bharat Tandon, managing director, Vetcare told Pharmabiz.

In India, Vetcare has four plants located in the outskirts of Bangalore. Recently, it invested Rs 5 crore to add on a chemical dispatch centre, automated a new liquid line for premix specialties and pet food packaging besides go in for rain water harvesting where it recharged the existing bore-wells to store rain water.

The company has a team of 20 scientists. The R&D centre with a dog and broiler centre, has opened a new layer shed. In order to undertake nutritional trials, Vetcare invested Rs 14 lakh for a dairy with hybrid cows at the BR Hills in Karnataka where it is also engaged in imparting dairy know-how to the tribal population in this region to help them pursue as an occupation.

The company has a total product line up of 150, out of which Poultry range contributes 60 per cent of the revenues, followed by Dairy, Pet and Aqua products.

Indian veterinary drug market including feeds and therapeutics is valued around Rs 3,000 crore. Vetcare is the leader in the sector looking at both product line extensions and building brands.

Ending December 2007, the company registered earnings to the tune of Rs. 170 crore. It is looking at new joint venture relationships in export and import partnerships. It will also go in for capital investment to penetrate further in the diary and pet sector. In the poultry sector, it is looking at nutritional feeds developed from natural sources as there is a growing demand from the developed markets. "This will allow us to enter the US," informed the Vetcare chief.

As part of its continuous manpower growth and retention strategies, Vetcare encourages high potential training for its senior managers with Indian Institute of Management. It has also registered with the Kuvempu University in Shimoga for PhD and post graduate programme for its scientific personnel.

With the Union government encouraging supplementary agriculture activities like poultry, dairy and aqua that are viable and successful on small land holdings, the sector will only prove to have a growth multiplier effect on both income and employment which will automatically have a positive impact on the veterinary drug market, stated Tandon.