“We see more companies looking at natural ways to improve animal feed, food nutrition and preservation”

In an interaction with AgroSpectrum, Aravindha Krishnamachari, Managing Director, Tex Biosciences shares the company’s plans and goals for the coming years. Edited excerpts;

Tex Biosciences, a family-owned organisation promoted by its Founder R P Krishnamachari, began its operations in leather and textile markets in 1979. The company has witnessed phenomenal growth and has a strong and diversified presence in animal feed, leather, water treatment, wastewater treatment, pulp & paper, textiles and detergent industries. Now the company is a major player in India and abroad for the manufacturing of animal feed additives for poultry, piggery and aqua market. Having two state-of-the-art plants in Tamil Nadu and registering its products in over 22 countries, it is also offering Contract Manufacturing Services. In an interaction with AgroSpectrum, Aravindha Krishnamachari, Managing Director, Tex Biosciences shares the company’s plans and goals for the coming years. Edited excerpts;

What have been the main growth drivers for Tex Biosciences in the last financial year? And how much increment in average turnover has the company seen during this period?

Animal Feed and Contract Manufacturing have been the main growth drives for Tex Biosciences in the last financial year. We grew at 7.6 per cent to achieve a turnover of Rs 71.08 crore in 2023-24.

What infrastructure and strategies do you have in place to boost the industry developments and partnerships for this year and the coming years?

 Tex Biosciences undertook a Rs 32 crore ($4 million) expansion programme to increase production capacities and improve capabilities. The expansion programme began in January 2021 and was completed by February 2024. The company added to its facility’s multiple large-scale fermenters and downstream processing equipment. We also created product and market specific blenders and packing units to service our contract manufacturing customers. Our strategy is to have a strong and large manufacturing capacity to be able to effectively service the industrial biotech market and embark on more contract manufacturing projects.

In which segment do you see promising supply requirements that will shape the company’s growth trajectory in the coming years? How do you strategise to stay on top of disruptions in the global supply chain?

Tex Biosciences sees good market potential in the feed and food industry. Our FAMI Qs, ISO 22000 and ISO 9001 certifications serve us in good stead to be able to serve the feed and food market. Antimicrobial peptides in both feed and food have good market potential and we see more companies looking at natural ways to improve feed and food nutrition and preservation.

Fermentation is both an Art and Science. Higher capacities allow us to compete with Chinese manufacturers and achieve economies of scale through large upstream and downstream equipment. Multiple fermenters housed in separate enclosures allow us to run multiple projects at the same time.

Indian biotech companies especially the ones that operate in industrial biotech sectors have to be risk taking and invest into large capacities. This allows us to run regular productions at lower cost and frees up time and capacities to run new trials and process/product optimisation. Tex Biosciences has been following this and is committed to continuously investing into large fermenter upstream and downstream capacities and embarking on new product development and process improvements.

In terms of product diversification to meet consumer needs and ensure expansion, what are the highlights in the company’s R&D sector in the coming 2-3 years?

Our R&D has been very active in discovering biotech solutions to problems faced in the animal feed industry. We have also expanded our product range into wastewater treatment and pulp and paper industries. Some of the notable contributions from our R&D team include Probiotics based solution to reduce ammonia smell in animal and aquaculture farming; Antimicrobial peptide solutions to reduce pathogen related diseases in animal and aquaculture farming; Using enzymes, probiotics and biotech components for bioremediation of wastewater and biotech solution for deinking of paper and reducing chemical usage.

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In an interaction with AgroSpectrum, Aravindha Krishnamachari,