Madhvi Sally / New Delhi/ Chandigarh February 28, 2006:
With industrial activity in the industrial townships of Baddi, Parwanoo, and Kala-Amb in full swing, it is the logistics players that are trying to consolidate their presence in the northern region.

Moving in this direction, Hyderabad based Gati Ltd has launched a state-of-the-art express distribution centre in Ambala to cater for the northern market

We are catering our services to the pharmaceutical industry, textile and all merchandising industry in the region and see a huge potential in the cargo business from this region, said Suresh Newatia, Head Retail and Business Development, Gati Limited.

Newatia spoke of how large distribution centres/warehouses spread over 30,000 sq feet and above with initial investment of Rs 1 crore will be the format.

The Ambala mechantronic warehouse is a combination of an express centre-for seamless booking and pick-ups, a Transit centre-for seamless sorting, pick packing and on time dispatches and a Mechantronic warehouse-with top of the line racking and security systems, modern material handling equipment and an online warehouse management system.

From the Ambala facility the company is targeting annual business of Rs 30-35 crore, with business coming from Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir.

The company is eyeing to do an annual turnover of Rs 365 crore this fiscal and touch Rs 1000 crore with the ongoing diversification program. In Gati we see a 40 percent annual growth, stated Newatia.

Providing supply chain management to the white goods industry with brands like Sony, Bharti,Hitachi Gati limited plans to cater to the automobile segment.

We are doing warehousing for Suzuki-spare parts and are tying up with other automobile companies,added Newatia.

After opening offices in Shanghai, Beijing, Singapore, Hong Kong and all the SAARC countries Gati will address the need of Kualumpur and Asia Pacific countries through which import takes place.