India

"It is imperative that the foreign investor look beyond India's developing conditions to realize that there are islands of excellence throughout the country containing extraordinary companies with uncompromising values and systems," says Jai Hiremath, managing director of Hikal.

With 95 percent of its products exported abroad, Hikal is one such company. It is the world's largest manufacturer of the post-harvest fungicide Thiabendazole, and is benchmarking new standards of manufacturing in pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals and biotechnology. "We are constantly innovating and developing new products because competition is fierce and China is a big threat," Hiremath stresses.

Hikal sees unprecedented growth in the near future as its new Bangalore plant is slated to soon receive USFDA approval, giving the company a foothold in the US market - the world's largest and most profitable. The company is also aggressively expanding its product line of pharmaceuticals into Europe, Latin America and, especially, Japan.
Jal Hiremath, managing director of Hikal

Aware that Japanese standards surpass even those of the US, Hikal has spared no expense in hiring top consultants to assure their products exceed all requirements. The company has also proven that it has the right chemistry for enduring relationships with long-term multinational clients like Merck and Syngenta.

Hiremath understands that relationships with the Japanese have to be continuous: "I think the only way to get into Japan is to have the Japanese working with you." He also realizes that coming from India demands greater efforts of validation in the process of qualifying his products to his counterparts in Japan. To assist in these matters, the company recently hired two Japanese employees in the interests of smoother communication.

Hikal is hard at work in becoming a fully integrated company with a special emphasis on biotech and IT. With virtually no domestic competition, the company has become an industry leader on the global scale, and continues to have a significant impact on global life science manufacturing.

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