Profile
Parry Agro is in the business of tea and coffee plantations and is one of the leading producers of tea in the country. Its 10,000 employees produce 17 million kgs of tea in seven tea estates spread over 13,500 acres. Around 95 per cent of the company's business is tea, but it also produces 400 tonnes of coffee. Tea sales were at Rs 79 crore in 2006-2007, while coffee sales were at Rs3 crore.

The history of the company traces back to colonial times. The Murugappa Group took over the management of the company in 1981 and, after two divestments - in 1987 and 1992 - by the Cooperative Wholesale Society Ltd (CWS) of the UK, the entire holding was relinquished to the Murugappa Group and the company was re-christened Parry Agro Industries Ltd in December 1992.

The company has six tea estates in Tamil Nadu and one in Assam. The coffee estate is in Karnataka. Its automated flagship factory, Mayura, was commissioned in 1985 and was the first tea factory based on microprocessor control and monitoring systems.

Parry Agro has a modern R&D facility accredited by NABL for its chemical and microbiological facilities, unique for a plantation company. The company has pioneered research on reversal of soil degradation. The Fertilisation Bio Organique (FBO) technology developed in association with Sambhalpur University has been patented. FBO technology has vast potential in the rejuvenation of degraded forests and other croplands, where soil has poor physical and chemical characteristics.

Areas of Business
Apart from tea and coffee, the company has interests in other plantation crops. It grows vanilla, as well as grows and processes rubber.

Awards and Certificates
The Mayura, Attikunna and Carolyn factories of Parry Agro are ISO 9001:2000 certified. The Iyerpadi estate has obtained an organic tea certification from IMO Switzerland and is certified for markets in the USA, EU and Japan. The Iyerpadi estate is also fair trade certified by FLO and is further certified ISO 22000:2005 by DNV for food safety standards. The Iyerpadi and Paralai factories are certified organic tea manufacturing factories for both orthodox and CTC.

Coffee from the Yelnoorkhan group of estates has won the 'Best Quality Coffee Award' in the 'Flavour of India-Fine Cup Award Cupping Competition 2004' conducted in Trieste, Italy, and in Seattle, USA, in 2005.

Contact
Raman Gurusankar
Head - Finance
Tel: 91 44 25306804
Email: gurusankerr@pai.murugappa.com

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