Hindusthan National Glass & Industries Ltd (HNGIL) plans to invest ₹300-500 crore over the next five months to expand manufacturing capacity and meet orders, as the container glassmaker seeks to return to profitability after a change in ownership and a prolonged capacity decline.
The Mumbai-based company, now part of the Africa-based Madhvani-Turner Group, has already invested around ₹700 crore in the business since Independent Sugar Corporation Ltd acquired it through the insolvency resolution process under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code for ₹2,250 crore in September 2025.
The additional investment during the remaining part of the current financial year will be used for capacity expansion and operational expenses, HNGIL Chief Strategy Officer Suraj Mehta told PTI. The company expects the effect of the expansion to begin showing in its financial performance from the current quarter.
“Our topline growth is directly linked to the capacity expansion, and that remains our primary focus. We expect the benefits to start reflecting in our profitability from this quarter onwards, with this quarter’s numbers likely to be quite strong,” Mehta said.
HNGIL’s operational capacity has increased to around 2,500-2,600 tonnes per day, compared with an installed capacity of 4,300 tonnes per day. Since the ownership change, the company has added 1,100-1,200 tonnes per day of manufacturing capacity.
The latest increase followed the firing of the company’s second furnace at Bahadurgarh in Haryana last week. The move doubled the unit’s capacity from 300 tonnes per day to 600 tonnes per day. Mehta said that when the company bid for HNGIL in 2022, its operational capacity was recorded at 2,600 tonnes per day, but this had fallen to between 1,100 and 1,200 tonnes per day by the time the acquisition was completed.
“This one year has been about getting that capacity back,” he said, adding that rebuilding the company’s production base had required substantial capital. Fuel and gas account for 20-25 per cent of costs, while prices are revised every fortnight and cannot be passed on fully to customers, according to Mehta.
The company has also restarted production at multiple facilities. Its Puducherry plant was re-commissioned in February at around 330 tonnes per day, while Naidupeta in Andhra Pradesh resumed operations in August at 650 tonnes per day. HNGIL described the Naidupeta facility as Asia’s largest single-furnace container glass plant and its export hub. The Rishra plant near Kolkata has installed capacity of around 950 tonnes per day.
HNGIL is also prioritising exports, with Europe identified as a potential market because of high energy prices and labour costs affecting the region’s domestic glass industry. Mehta said the company intends to compete on quality as it seeks to fill part of the gap in that market.
The company’s immediate milestones are the planned capacity investments over the next five months, the delivery of orders received during the corporate insolvency resolution period and the expected return to profitability from the current quarter.
