Imperial Limited, a once proud sugar-plant, pitches an out-of-the-box solution to its woes

An eerie silence remains suspended over Phalia and Mian Channu. In the background, massive grey structures loom large, their silence telling a story words could not. In this small section of rural Punjab, the slow, crackling sounds of sugarcane being pressed and the hum of machines that once worked overtime has not been heard in some years.

The sugar plants, once a bustling part of the landscape, have not crushed a single reed of sugar cane in more than a decade. The reality seems even starker when it is considered that the plant was set up less than two decades ago. Established in 2007, Imperial Limited used to be called Colony Sugar and Imperial Sugar in the previous iterations before the new name was finalized. From the very beginning, the company was marred in terms of its performance. It registered a profit of Rs 4 crores in its first year before turning into consistent losses since 2014. The initial problem was the fact the cost of production was too high which restricted profits from being earned.

As losses became the norm, the management decided to shut down production at the end of 2014. Since then, the management has tried to find new avenues of production and revenue generation. First of all, the company put up its plant for sale in order to recover some of its investment back. The funds which were being raised were invested in mutual funds which could generate returns for the investors and Imperial itself. Proactive measures were taken to find business opportunities which could be capitalized on. Two paths were charted out. One was to invest in real estate where land would be bought and developed into residential projects. This decision was taken based on the wave of investment taking place in the real estate sector in Lahore. With mixed results, this decision has failed to take off as the property market faced a slump.

The other route which was taken was to develop a hydroponic business by carrying out vertical farming to grow vegetables in an efficient manner. This project faced hiccups as it was being developed and took four years to come to fruition. Imperial has recently announced that the infrastructure has finally been completed and the first seeding would be carried out in February with the first harvest expected in May. Could this be the catalyst for the company to become profitable yet again?