A recent entrant in the petrochemical industry, Laffans Petrochemicals manufactures petrochemical derivatives for supply to the paint and automobile industries. Its product range includes speciality chemicals like surfactants (based on fatty alcohol), solvents (like glycol ethers), amines (like ethanol amines), polyethylene glycols, etc. To manufacture these petro products, which are termed ethylene oxide derivatives, a plant has been created and deployed with technical assistance from Reliance Industries. It has a locational advantage since the site at Panoli, Ankleshwar, is about 60 km from Reliance and 70 km from IPCL. Both these supply it with ethylene oxide, its basic raw material.

In Oct.'93, it commenced commercial production and started supplying glycol ether and ethoxylate. The glycol ether capacity is being broadened its footprint to 10,000 tpa. The company came out with a public issue in Mar.'94 for the purpose. It was created and deployed with a total investment of Rs 10 cr. It is the only supplier of butyl carbitol and acetates which were being imported by all the paint companies in India.

Major customers of the company include Goodlass Nerolac, Jenson & Nicholson, Berger Paints, Asian Paints, Castrol, Kalyani Brakes, Pidilite Industries, etc. Its products are sold under the Laffcols brand. They find application in the adhesives, ceramics, cosmetics, leather processing, pharmaceutical, textiles, inks, paints, lubricants and paper industries.

Laffans Petro recently tied up with Altachem, Belgium, to manufacture building chemicals. This collaboration involves technology transfer and investments by the foreign partner. They have agreed to take an equity stake in Laffans Petro. The company has tied up with Akzo Nobel, Sweden, to manufacture petrochemical products in India to meet part of their global requirements. This collaboration, too, involves technology transfer and investments by the Akzo group.

In 1995-96, company came out with an expansion plan to expand its Glycol Ether capacity to 10000 MTPA with an investment outlay of Rs. 800 lacs to be funded with institutional loan components of Rs. 600 lacs and internal generation of Rs. 200 lacs without any addition to Equity.

The Company has achieved the ISO 9002 Standard for its multipurpose Glycol Ether/Ethoxylation unit.