Date:29/03/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/03/29/stories/2008032957101900.htm

Business

Aspinwall to re-brand its products

Special Correspondent

KOCHI: Aspinwall & Co. Ltd., which traces its lineage to 1867, is on a re-branding mode and its logistics, coffee, coir, plantation and tourism divisions are slated to get an image makeover at a cost of over Rs.50 crore, company sources said here.

The Aspinwall group had undergone a restructuring with all the major group companies being amalgamated and merged into the flagship company. At present the company has a turnover of Rs.200 crore.

The shipping division is in the process of having a tie-up with Japanese major Hitachi and negotiations were in different stages to have tie-up with infrastructure companies like DLF, senior officials of Aspinwall said.

The rubber division with a major presence in Malappuram district (where the Pullangode rubber estate is located) is also trying to make centrifugal latex and to venture into rubber threads manufacture as a value-addition.

Speciality coffee, cured by the monsoon rain in the Malabar coast, is also set to receive GI (Geographical Indicator) status soon, officials said. Rama Varma, managing director, and N.R. Pai, chief executive of the company, addressed the media.

Mr. Rama Varma, later, unveiled a plaque to mark the new identity of the company.