J K Paper Limited, formerly known as Central Pulp Mills Limited, a member of HS Singhania Group was originally promoted by Parkhe Group of Pune to manufacture Paper and Paper products. The Company was incorporated in July, 1960. Name of the Company was changed to JK Paper Limited from The Central Pulp Mills Limited in December, 2001.
The Company is a leading player in segments like Office Paper, Writing & Printing, Packaging Boards, Coated Paper and Specialty Paper. The Company's state -of -the art manufacturing units are located at strategic locations: Unit JKPM in East (Rayagada, Odisha), Unit CPM in West (Songadh, Gujarat).
The Company started its journey in 1938 and made with an investment in the manufacture of straw board in Bhopal with a capacity of 3,600 TPA. The Company established its first paper manufacturing unit at JKPM, Odisha, in 1962. In 1992, it acquired Unit at CPM in Gujarat. The company which fell sick and referred to BIFR was taken over by JK Corp Ltd a member of the HS Singhania Group in 1992. JK Corp. holds 44.76% in the equity of this company as on Nov 6, 2003. The company has turnaround in a short period of time with the rehabilitation package by HS Singhania Group companies JK Corp Ltd and JK Industries. JK Paper today has an combined installed capacity of 150000 tpa with two integrated Paper Mills at JK Paper Mills, Orissa (Inst. Cap 100000 tpa) and Central Pulp Mills, Gujarat(Inst. Cap 50000 tpa). The company's paper mills are operating with a health average capacity utilisation of 115%. Further the company has purchased a Pulp Drying Plant from Finland in 2001 to increase the output and realization of market pulp. The plant was commissioned during the year itself.
In 2005, the Company commissioned a coating plant at JKPM Unit in Odisha. In 2007, it commissioned a premium packaging board plant at Unit - CPM (Gujarat).
J K Paper has also been consistently exporting its products to markets such as Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and several West Asian Countries. The company is the first paper mill in India to have been accredited with ISO 14001.
The company enjoys the locational advantage in respect of sourcing raw material. It sources all its bamboo requirements with in the 200 kms radius of the plant. Further for long term continuous source of raw material the company is running social forestry and farm forestry programmes in 11 districts of Orissa and 3 districts of Andhra Pradesh, covering a total area of over 20,000 Ha. In 2001-02 it has distributed 27 million saplings, covering over 5200 hectares under plantations in Orissa, AP and Gujarat.
J K Paper has been a pioneer in every field related to the manufacture and marketing of paper. It has the distinction of being the Largest manufacturer of branded copier paper in India.; First to introduce surface sized maplitho in India.; First to introduce high quality bond paper 'Finesse' in A4 size consumer friendly retail packs of 100 sheets. First to introduce laser paper in India. The company has introduced two new value added products i.e. MICR Cheque Paper and Cup-stock Board and both of them have well recieved in the market.
The company which is well known for its success in creating brand in paper industry with having top two paper brand (i.e JK Copier[contributing 140 cr. to co's turnover in FY02-03] & JK Easy Copier) in its basket the company has initiated outsourcing of paper products in India. This outsourcing activity was kick started in the end of 2001-02 and gathered momentum last year. The company has outsources JK Cote (positioned in upper art paper segment) from an international producer who produces as per the specification of JK Paper. The company outsouces domestically JK Eco Cote (caters to price conscious Chrome paper segment) and 'JK Eco Print'.
In 2000-01, JK Corp Limited got merged with the Company and the Scheme of Arrangement became effective on 5th November 2001.
Latest Development: JK Paper is planning to upgrade over half of its paper manufacturing capacity to manufacture coated paper. The upgradation (Conversion from non-coated to coated) to cost around Rs.60 crs.
In 2013, the Company commissioned a new fiber line and high-speed paper manufacturing machine at Unit - JKPM (Odisha) with a capacity of 1,65,000 TPA.
During the year 2016, the Company had issued 1,19,10,000 Equity Shares of Rs.10/- each at a price of Rs.42/- (including premium of Rs.32/-) aggregating to Rs.50 Crore on preferential basis to the Promoter and constituents of the Promoter Group. Consequently, the paid-up Equity Share Capital of the Company increased to Rs.148.53 Crore from Rs.136.62 Crore. The proceeds of the said issue have been used towards augmenting the Net Worth of the Company.
During the year under review, the Company had issued 74,28,240 Equity Shares of Rs. 10/- each at a conversion price of Rs.56.37 per Equity Share consequent upon the conversion of the Foreign Currency Convertible Bonds (FCCBs) (Series 2) to the holders of such FCCBs. The Company had also converted its FCCBs (Series 3) into 74,28,240 Equity Shares of Rs. 10/- each at a similar conversion price during the financial year 2017-18 and consequently the paid-up Equity Share Capital of the Company stands increased to Rs. 163.39 Crore on the date of signing of this Report.
During the year 2018, Euro 17.1 million FCCBs were converted resulting in increase in paid up Equity Capital of the Company from Rs 155.96 crore to Rs 175.50 crore. Since then, all the remaining FCCBs (Euro 2.4 million) have been converted enhancing the Equity Share Capital to Rs.178.24 crore.
In 2018, the Company acquired Sirpur Paper Mills Limited (SPML) in Telangana with an installed capacity of 1,36,000 MTPA. It made several de-bottlenecking and cost optimising investments in critical areas like head box, steam and power systems, finishing equipment, refiners, chemical processing, effluent discharge etc. in its existing facilities during the year totaling over Rs. 94 crore.
In 2019, the Company was certified as a Great Place to Work and the Unit CPM of the Company was awarded the Dr. B. L. Bihani, the Memorial Award for Best Paper (National) at PaperEx 2019.
During 2020-21, the Company procured 100% raw material from all sustainable sources into two categories i.e. FSC@ 100% wood from its Well Managed Group Plantations' and verified controlled wood through suppliers from Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. It produced new products, namely JK VFL, JK UFL, JK Color Kraft, JK Pac Fresh among others. Product categories launched in 2020-21 comprised Color Kraft paper, Kraft liner paper, JK Pac fresh. JK Sublime paper (rolls) & Liquid packaging board.
During 2022, the Company commissioned 170,000 TPA packaging board expansion at Unit Central Pulp Mills (CPM). It launched JIA (JK Paper Intelligent Assistant). It acquired the Embedded systems and Electro Optics Business of Deepti Electronics and Electro Optics Pvt. Ltd. through a Business Transfer Agreement.
During the year 2023, the Company had acquired 85% stake in Horizon Packs Pvt. Ltd and Securipax Packaging Ltd. Accordingly, HPPL and SPPL became subsidiaries of the Company. The Company formed a subsidiary, JKPL Packaging Products Limited (JKPPPL), which acquired a green field site in Ludhiana. The Company's s first Greenfield project in Ludhiana started trial production. It introduced new products such as, JK Eco green Purefil (Aqueous barrier coated Cupstock), K Eco green Tuff freeze (Aqueous barrier coated OGR Board), JK Purefil P2P (2 PE Coated Cupstock Board), and Cigarette Board.
The Company has embarked on establishing a greenfield corrugated packaging plant in Ludhiana in FY 2024, to capitalize on growing industrialization and e-commerce markets, through its wholly owned subsidiary, JKPL Packaging Products Ltd. Further, the Company acquired 85% equity stake of Horizon Packs Pvt. Ltd. (HPPL) and Securipax Packaging Pvt. Ltd., (SPPL) leaders in the corrugated packaging business. Additionally, it acquired 100% equity shares of Manipal Utility Packaging Solutions Pvt. Ltd., which subsequently is renamed as JKPL Utility Packaging Solutions Pvt. Ltd. in FY24.