engro to launch ice

DAWN – Engro would start serving scoops of ice cream the coming spring from its plant at Sahiwal, as the project nears completion.
Engro Foods Limited–the wholly owned subsidiary of Engro Chemical Limited–aims at expanding its range of milk products.
A company official said on Tuesday that Engro would launch its own brand and try carving a niche in the market of milk delicacies.
“The ice cream would be launched in Punjab in April this year and it would be introduced in Sindh in 2010,” he said he in reply to queries.
A figure could not be put on the cost of the project, but it was recalled that Engro’s CAPEX plan last year was of the sum of Rs3 billion.
Ayub Ansari, research analyst at Invest Capital Investment Bank, observed that in the CY09, Engro plans to invest a sum of Rs1.2 billion in funding expansion of the foods business.
The company told a Securities Analysts’ Briefing last week that the ice cream project was at the “implementation level with a dedicated state of the art production facility near completion at the company’s Sahiwal plant.”
The main Engro Chemical Pakistan unveiled 34 per cent growth in profit after tax to Rs4.24 billion for the year ended Dec 31, 2008, which was in line with analysts’ expectations. But the board’s decision to ask shareholders for cash in a right issue at 40 per cent at premium of Rs40 per share, was received with distaste by shareholders.