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Balmer Lawrie & Co. Ltd. (BL)


IntroductionFounded by two Scotsmen, George Stephen Balmer and Alexander Lawrie, in 1867 in Kolkata, India, Balmer Lawrie & Co. Ltd. (BL) started as a Partnership Firm on 1 February 1867. Today Balmer Lawrie is a Mini-Ratna I Public Sector Enterprise under the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Government of India, with a turnover of ₹2895 crores and a profit of ₹234 crores as of March 31, 2016.

It became a Private limited company in 1924 with a Paid up share capital of ₹40 lakhs, a Public limited company in 1936 and then a Government of India Enterprise in 1972.

BL products include steel barrels, industrial greases, specialty lubricants, corporate travel and logistics services. It has a presence in performance chemicals and logistics infrastructure.

It is the largest manufacturer of steel barrels in India. The company is headquartered in Kolkata, and has offices throughout India and in Bedford in the UK.

The Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas derives its authority from the seventh schedule of article 246 of the Constitution of India. The Ministry is entrusted with the responsibility of exploration and production of oil and natural gas, their refining, distribution and marketing, import, export, and conservation of petroleum products.

Administrative Ministry of Balmer Lawrie To visit the Ministry's web site click on the following link  http://petroleum.nic.in/

Vision

"To be a leading diversified corporate entity having market leadership in the chosen business segments, consistently delivering value to all stakeholders, with environmental and social responsibility".

 

World of Balmer Lawrie – pie chart depicting the SBUs, JVs and Wholly Owned Subsidiaries

Joint Venture in India

  • Transafe Services Ltd.
  • Balmer Lawrie - Van Leer Ltd.
  • AVI-OIL India Pvt. Ltd.

Joint Venture Abroad

  • PT. Balmer Lawrie Indonesia [JV of BLUK]
  • Balmer Lawrie (UAE) LLC

Subsidiaries

  • Balmer Lawrie [UK] Limited
  • Visakhapatnam Port Logistics Park Limited

Research and Development

Being a progressive organization, Balmer Lawrie has always focused on R&D to develop environment friendly and biodegradable products and services. However, the R&D spend is mainly in the manufacturing business. Our R&D spend in 2011-12 was 0.35% of manufacturing sales, which was around Rs. 1,000 crore. An R&D spends of over 0.7% of sales of the manufacturing business has been budgeted for the year 2013-14, and it will gradually increase to 2% by 2016-17.

While basic research is being done in Greases & Lubricants, the focus is on applied research in Industrial Packaging. Majority of the investment is being made in our greases & lubricants plant, as we are one of the largest producers of specialty greases & lubricants in India. Similarly in the area of Leather Chemicals our thrust is not only on developing import substitutes for the leather processing industry but also to develop more green and environment friendly products.

Testing of grease

Greases & Lubricants - Applications Research Laboratory (ARL)

The R&D Centre of SBU: Greases & Lubricants, named as Applications Research Laboratory, located at Kolkata was established in 1981 with the objective of carrying out applications oriented research in greases and lubricants. The R&D centre is equipped with state-of-the-art test rigs / instruments backed by highly qualified scientists / engineers. The company spends around 1% of the turnover on R&D in the lubricants business.

The R&D Centre is recognized since 1984 by the Department of Scientific & Industrial Research, Ministry of Science & Technology, Government of India. The R&D Centre is committed to maintain cost competitiveness and achieving technological leadership through introduction of innovative products, product up-gradation & value engineering.

The major thrust areas for R&D are high performance & specialty products for niche markets with focus on biodegradable and eco-friendly lubricants. The R&D Centre is also involved in collaborative research with leading research organizations / institutes.

The R&D Centre is engaged in development of various high performance lubricants with critical applications parameters like high temperature, extreme pressure, low temperature and long life lubrication. Presently the centre is focusing on development of synthetic, eco-friendly / biodegradable and food grade greases and lubricating oils. Focus is also towrads developmen of technology for high performance greases for industrial application and automotive wheel bearing, water soluble chlorine and boron free synthetic cutting oil for Steel Tubes and Wire Drawing Oil for Aluminium industry.

The R&D Centre is instrumental in developing various specialty lubricants and providing innovative lubrication solutions to the core sectors like Steel, Defence, Railways, Mines, and Sponge Iron.

Steel barrel manufacturing in progress

Industrial Packaging - Technology and Product Development (T&PD) Centre

The Technology & Product Development Centre located at Industrial Packaging, Kolkata plays a pivotal role in enabling quality up gradation, product innovation & diversification keeping pace with changing technology. Automated drum manufacturing technology is being used to stabilize production. World class plant and equipment has been imported by teh SBU and is in the process of launching new products.

Leather Chemicals – Product Development Centre

For research and development on leather chemicals, the Product Development Center at Manali, Chennai has a team of qualified researchers who are constantly working on developing new age leather chemicals.

Investment in technology

Investments in Technology

Major investments are being made in IT and technology, which will support not only the manufacturing businesses but also the service businesses. ERP (SAP) is in the process of being implemented across SBUs and support functions.

Apart from this, investments have been made in technology in the Tours & Travel business. A new back end system has been put in place and in the last one and a half years the whole system of booking tickets has been automated with the system generating the lowest fares through a customized software.

In the Logistics Infrastructure business, RFID based system has been implemented in all our Container Freight Stations (CFSs) for tracking containers in real time. Hence, the status of all our CFSs and movement of the containers, through a centralized web based system can be monitored from Kolkata. Soon, our customers will also be able to track their shipment in real time through the web interface, get invoices and make payments online.

Similar to the RFID tracking system for containers, a Freight Tracking System is in the process of being implemented for our Logistics Services business. This system allows one to track the status of any shipment from the time of shipment till the time of its arrival at the customer's warehouse.

In both Logistics Infrastructure & Logistics Services, substantial investments in technology are being made.

Occupational Health Safety, Environment Protection

The Company accords high priority to Occupational Health & Safety, Environment Protection & Sustainability and has established Environment & Occupational Health Management System across the organization. Major plants/ branches are ISO 14001 & OHSAS 18001 certified. The company has taken various initiatives to minimize the pollution load of the operations. Treatment & disposal of effluents conforms to the statutory requirements. Air emissions also strictly adhere to the norms as laid down in Environment Protection Act 1986. Disposal of hazardous waste is being done strictly as per Hazardous Waste Rules 2008 & Occupational Health & Safety standards are maintained as per Factories Act 1948.

Employee Health & Safety:

The Company accords high priority to Employee Health &Safety. In pursuance of this the Company has established an integrated Health & Safety Management System across the organization. The Company has published HSE Manual which would be used as reference book in plants and other establishments of the Company. The Company carries out HSE audit for all its manufacturing and Container Freight stations as per the HSE audit protocol of the manual. The company has also introduced HSE MIS system for all manufacturing & CFS units. Every plant/CFS unit submits a monthly HSE MIS to corporate office enabling taking corrective steps. Major plants / units of the Company are OHSAS 18001 certified. All Occupational Health & Safety Standards are adhered to as per The Factories Act, 1948. Major initiatives /activities undertaken in this domain in are as follows

  • HSE Audits were carried out in all manufacturing units/establishment of the Company during the year and recommendations thereof implemented.
  • Fire protection system/ Hydrant system installed in Asaoti plant of Industrial Packaging division.
  • Behavior based safety carried out for all Plant managers, Maintenance managers and Operational managers.
  • External Electrical Safety audit carried out at all the plants of Manufacturing Business.
  • Two days workshop on Electrical safety carried out at Head Office for both Manufacturing and Service Business.
  • Conducted HSE awareness training for employees involving 700 man-hours.
  • Project HSE plan implemented at the green field project sites of Temperature Controlled Warehouse at Rai.
  • Observed Safety Week from 4th to 11th March 2017 across all plants and establishments of the Company.
  • Defensive Driving training carried out for Kolkata based employees to create awareness on Road safety.
  • Crisis Management Plan developed and rolled out for all business in August 2016.
  • Management of Change (MOC) procedure rolled out last year has been implemented in most of the manufacturing plants

Environment Protection & Sustainability:

Being fully committed towards the protection and conservation of the environment, the Company has taken various initiatives to minimize the pollution load of operations. Treatment & disposal of effluents conform to the statutory requirements. Air emissions norms also strictly adhere to the norms laid down in the Environment Protection Act, 1986. Disposal of hazardous waste is done strictly as per Hazardous Waste and Other Waste Rules, 2016. All Plants and major establishments of the Company are certified to environment standards ISO 14000.The Company has in place a comprehensive Long Term Integrated Sustainability Plan which lays down the sustainability policy, program framework, governance structure, communication etc.
Some of the other initiatives/activities taken up by the Company in this domain include:
  • BL is the founding member of UN Global Compact in India
  • Two tier Organizational structure is in place to drive CSR & Sustainability initiatives in the Company
  • The Company has installed 200 KWp of Solar Plant at Manali complex Chennai and 100 KWp solar plant at roof top of IP Asaoti. Both plants cumulatively has capacity to offset around 400 Tons of carbon dioxide each year.
  • CSR & Sustainable Development (SD) Committees formed at Corporate & Regional levels
  • Regular Training & awareness programs to sensitize people are being conducted for employees in the areas of CSR & SD The Long term CSR & SD plans have been developed To reduce carbon footprint related to to / fro transportation of containers from Kolkata Port to our CFS, the company has built an Integrated Railway Siding between Kolkata Port & CFS.
  • Energy efficient welding machines have been installed in Silvassa and Asaoti plants of Industrial Packaging.
  • Exercise on Operational Excellence was conducted at Silvassa Drum manufacturing plant in association with Price Waterhouse Cooper(PWC), which resulted in significant savings through improved productivity, machine up time, on-time-in-full delivery, quality and reduction in energy consumption.
  • Adoption of implementation of 83% of the recommendations made by KPMG for greening of supply chain of Greases & Lubricant Business
  • The Company continues to give thrust on technological up-gradations in the manufacturing processes to ensure that adverse impact of our operations on the environment is minimal. The Application Research Laboratory of the Company has made significant progress in developing a number of biodegradable lubricants like hydraulic fluids, gear oils for high temperature applications for enclosed and open gear boxes, engine oils for 4 stroke gasoline engines etc.
  • Introduced light weight steel drum thus saving significant natural resources.
  • Introduced specially designed steel drum with reduced external dia. enabling loading of 80 drums in a TEU instead of 76 drums.
  • Introduced Low VOC paint at our Sewree drum manufacturing plant.
  • Setting up new environment friendly high throughput steel drum mfg. plant with:Related image
    1. LEED certification
    2. Solar power plant
    3. No degreasing unit
  • Introduced pressure kettles for grease processing bringing down processing time substantially.
  • Developing Bio-degradable greases
  • Energy audits done periodically at all manufacturing units to improve on energy efficiency.
  • Development of environmental friendly Phenol - free syntans Modified vegetable syntans

In future the focus will be on reducing carbon footprints, water footprints, waste footprints & investment in Solar Power generation at various manufacturing units of the organization.

CSR

Balmer Lawrie believes that good financial results are not an end in itself to assess the success of any business; rather it is a mean to achieving higher socio-economic goals. In pursuance of this belief, the Company is committed to conducting its business in a socially responsible manner and be responsive to the needs of the society at large. Accordingly, the Company has been pursuing various CSR initiatives since the last few decades driving sustainable development and growth for its stakeholders.

Balmer Lawrie's CSR initiatives are driven by two Flagship Programs - Balmer Lawrie Initiative for Self Sustenance [BLISS] and Samaj Mein Balmer Lawrie [SAMBAL]. While the first Program is directed at providing and improving the long term economic sustenance of the underprivileged, the second Program aims at improving the living standards and quality of life of population in and around the Company's work-centers. Read the success story of the beneficiaries of the flagship program BLISS. As a part of SAMBAL, continuous development work is being carried out in Sayali Village in Silvassa.

Through the various CSR programs, the Company has constantly endeavored to integrate the interest of the business with that of the communities in which it operates. In keeping with Department of Public Enterprises [DPE] guidelines on CSR, the Company has formulated a CSR Policy and Long Term Perspective Plan. In order to facilitate companywide implementation of our CSR policy and ensure that CSR is embedded across various business units and their operations, a CSR governance structure has been put in place.

Further, Balmer Lawrie is a founding member of Global Compact in India and it has unstintingly pursued Global Compact's principles and agenda over the years. We have been constantly working towards adopting fair and equitable practices at the workplace, implementing focused CSR projects, adopting environment friendly processes and technologies and advancing sustainability efforts to champion the Principles of the Global Compact.

ContactImage result for balmer lawrie

Corporate & Registered Office 21, Netaji Subhas Road, Kolkata -700 001 Phone: 033-22225218 Email: corpcomm@balmerlawrie.com

Website - www.balmerlawrie.com

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