Bajaj Hindusthan Sugar Ltd

Early Years

Bajaj Hindusthan Sugar Limited (BHSL) was incorporated on November 23, 1931 as 'Hindusthan Sugar Mills Limited'. Set up by late Shri Jamnalal Bajaj, venerated businessman, freedom fighter, and close confidante of Mahatma Gandhi, the Company's founding was in response to fulfilling an urgent national mission, that of giving impetus to industry - there were less than 30 sugar mills in the country at the time - and furthering the cause of inclusive growth.

The site selected for the first plant was at Gola Gokaran Nath, in Lakhimpur Kheri district in the Terai region of present day Uttar Pradesh (UP). Located in an area rich in sugarcane, the original capacity of the plant was 400 tons of cane crushed per day (TCD). Over time this was increased to its present 13,000 TCD.

The Distillery Unit of the plant commenced production in 1944. With World War II still raging, the distillery's major output initially was in the form of power alcohol, which was in short supply at the time. The unit was the first in the country to supply alcohol-mixed petrol to the army.

In 1967, a new company - Sharda Sugar & Industries Limited - was established as a subsidiary of Hindusthan Sugar Mills Limited. Under this new subsidiary, a sugar plant with a cane crushing capacity of 1400 TCD was set up in 1972 at Palia Kalan, a large cane supplying centre 70 kilometres to the north of Gola Gokaran Nath unit. The new unit was intended to help the cane farmers in area supply their produce to a facility closer to their fields thereby lowering transportation costs. The capacity of the Palia Kalan unit was increased over time to its present 11,000 TCD.

In High Gear

In 1988, Hindusthan Sugar Mills Limited was renamed as Bajaj Hindusthan Sugar Limited (BHSL) and two years later Sharda Sugar & Industries Limited was amalgamated with the Company.

The aughts saw BHSL embark on an aggressive Greenfield expansion drive wherein during a four-year period from 2003-2007 it set up a remarkable eight plants across the state. This drive beginning with a plant at Kinauni near Meerut - was completed in a record time of just seven months as against the typical industry time of 18-24 months - saw the total cane crushing capacity of the Company shoot up to 96,000 TCD.

Along the way, in 2005 the Company acquired Pratappur Sugar and Industries Limited (PSIL) in UP's Deoria district. The plant, Asia's oldest, had been in operation since 1903 with a crushing capacity of 3,200 TCD. Post-acquisition its capacity was doubled to 6,000 TCD within a year.

PSIL was subsequently renamed Bajaj Hindusthan Sugar and Industries Limited (BHSIL) and made a subsidiary of BHSL. This acquisition provided BHSL a strategic foothold in the sugar-deficient region of Eastern UP and reaffirmed the consolidation that took place in the sugar industry.

Besides boosting BHSL's overall cane crushing capacity, by the end of 2007 the expansion drive had also turned the Company into India's largest ethanol producer with an output of 480 Kilolitres Per Day (KLD).

Unstoppable Momentum

Even as the Company continued to work on boosting the capacity of its existing sugar plant at Pratappur, it set up three more sugar units in parallel in virgin, cane-rich areas of East UP at Rudauli (district Basti), Kundarkhi (district Gonda) and in Utraula (district Balrampur). This took BHSIL's total crushing capacity to 40,000 TCD.

With the commissioning of three Bagasse-based power co-generation plants at Kundarkhi, Rudauli and Utraula, BHSIL had an aggregate power generation capacity of 95.8 MW. Combined with the power generation capacity of 325 MW from BHSL, the Company's total generation capacity stands at 420.8 MW which is more than enough for meeting its own energy needs. In fact, the Company supplies the surplus 90 MW of energy to the UP state grid.

In December 2010, BHSIL was amalgamated with BHSL.

BHSL's growth initiative was guided by a strategic focus of attaining global scale of manufacturing and cost competitiveness. On the other hand, it also led to tremendous developmental opportunities in UP, a state yearning for infrastructural growth, employment for the youth and overall socioeconomic development of the rural communities.

Today, BHSL stands in a unique position. Taller than any of its local peers and among the best in the world in terms of planning and processes. With the Company touching more than 5 lakh farmers in UP today, it is directly contributing to the rural economy and bringing positive change to countless lives in UP and elsewhere across India.