Usha Sharma – Mumbai
Sotax Group plans to relocate its Asia-Pacific headquarters from China to Mumbai, India effective July 1, 2013. The company will be completing official formalities of shifting the headquarters from China to India before June 25, 2013. The entire Asia business of Sotax will be managed by Mumbai office.
Jean-Lois Raton, Head of Business Unit Asia – Pacific, Sotax Group reasoned about relocating the headquarters and said, “In China we do not have companies to sell our products directly, however in India we deal with companies directly. And India has more potential than China. To continue our business in China, we will be following dealer model. ”
The company is involved in the development and manufacturing of equipment for dissolution testing, automated sample preparation and physical testing of pharma dosage forms. With a global network of service engineers, it is being preferred for the installation, maintenance, repair and qualification services for its Sotax and Zymark brand products.
The company has acquired Swiss – based Dr Schleuniger Pharmatron company for $15 million. It has raised the required funds partially from internal accruals and from term loans.
Commenting on recent development in Mumbai , Raton commented, “This development will extend our business further. This will give our clients a complete range of solutions under one roof. We will be asking Pharmatron to develop Made in India installation solution specifically for Indian companies. We are also looking for more acquisitions from India.”
“With hundreds of tablet hardness testers installed at all leading pharma companies in India since 1997 and a proven track record of more than 20,000 testers in the market, Dr Schleuniger Pharmatron hardness testers are renowned for their reliability and repeatable precision all over the world. In India we have limited reach but after the recent development, we will certainly grow many fold,” said Holger Herrmann, Vice President Sales and Marketing, Dr Schleuniger Pharmatron.
“The Sotax Group’s acquisition of Dr Schleuniger Pharmatron at this juncture is the right strategy and will strengthen the Sotax leadership position as the provider of pharma testing globally. In India, Dr Schleuniger Pharmatron is the number one choice for most leading pharma manufacturing companies for testing of tablets. Sotax India shall capitalise on this opportunity and further strengthen our market share in this segment in the coming years,” mentioned Dr L Ramaswamy, Managing Director, Sotax India.
The company also offers SPS Pharma Services (CRO), contract research lab dedicated to dissolution testing research and integrated the Zymark automation product line. It is also planning to set up a high quality contract research laboratory for dissolution testing in Mumbai. It is likely that commercial operations will begin before December 2013. “This new lab will be a subsidiary of SPS and will be a unique facility in the Asia. India has low cost margin and more reach with quality, that’s why we have identified India as a destination for setting up a lab,” said Ramaswamy.
The turn over of Sotax group is now $55 mn and the company expect to touch around $60 mn.