In a small section of rural Punjab, the sugar plants, once a bustling part of the landscape, have not crushed a single sugar cane reed in more than a decade.
Established in 2007, Imperial Limited used to be called Colony Sugar and Imperial Sugar in previous iterations before the new name was finalized. From the very beginning, the company was marred by poor performance. It registered a profit of Rs 4 crores in its first year before turning into consistent losses since 2014. The initial problem was the cost of production, which restricted profits.
As losses became the norm, the management decided to shut down production at the end of 2014. Since then, the management has tried to find new avenues of production and revenue generation. The company put up its plant for sale to recover some of its investment.
Proactive measures were taken to find business opportunities that could be capitalized on. Two paths were charted out. One was to invest in real estate where land would be bought and developed into residential projects. The other route that was taken was to develop a hydroponic business by carrying out vertical farming to grow vegetables in an efficient manner.
This project faced hiccups as it was being developed and took four years to come to fruition. Imperial has recently announced that the infrastructure has finally been completed and the first seeding would be carried out in February with the first harvest expected in May. Could this be the catalyst for the company to become profitable yet again?
Source: profit.pakistantoday.com.pk