Shalimar Paints is keen to reboot its manufacturing unit at Howrah that was gutted by fire in 2014.

The 118-year-old manufacturing plant at Howrah is the oldest plant of the company. Production from the plant was suspended after fire damaged the factory. Its other three plants are located at Secundrabad, Nasik and Chennai. Incidentally, the Nasik plant also caught fire in 2016 resulting in a severe blow to the operations of the company.

However, the business is now on a recovery path with the company posting positive earnings before interest, taxes depreciation and amortisation in the last three quarters. There are now expectations of the company becoming cash positive over the next 2-3 quarters.

“What we have done in the past 12-14 months is to put the basic business back on track. In Nasik, we have started production and our immediate focus is on stabilising production in all our three plants,” said Minal Srivastava, vice-president, marketing Shalimar Paints.

“It is definitely in our plan to start production at Howrah. The brand has its origin here. By next fiscal we are hoping to have a concrete plan for Howrah unit,” said Srivatava adding that the company is bearing cost in freight and despatch to cater to the regional demand even though having a facility in the region.

She added that the company has seen an uptick in business after the festive season in both volume and value and once the company strengthens its financial position, it could explore diversification into high value paint segment.

In the first nine months of the fiscal, the company’s consolidated revenue grew 31 per cent to Rs 261 crore while the growth in volume in the same period was 24 per cent.

“For us business started picking up post festive season and we are seeing a certain momentum quarter by quarter. We have been able to grow at a faster pace than the industry and in this situation the numbers are pretty heartening. We have been Ebitda positive and now we are gunning for becoming cash positive. If we turn cash positive we will have breathing space to grow and scale up further,” said Srivastava.