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NT Bureau
Chennai, May 22:

        Solar Compact Disc Pvt Ltd (Solar CD), a subsidiary of plastics major Saro group, has set up a new plant for manufacturing prerecorded CDs, DVDs which would cater to the growing demand among the music, film, software and hardware industries.

        Inaugurated by Rural Industries Minister Pongalur Palaniswamy at a function yesterday, the Saro group had invested Rs six crore in the new plant at its premises in Guindy Industrial Estate. 'There is a good demand for replication services from CD and DVD companies having copyrights for their products and being the first unit in Tamilnadu to manufacture prerecorded formats in CDs and DVDs we will cater to this market,' said G Dayal Nathan, director, Solar CD.

        Talking to mediapersons on the eve of the inauguration, he said the company used the state-of-the-art technology in a secure ambience to turn out prerecorded CDs, DVDs and glass masters with a capacity of seven million discs a year. The optical disc market in South India has crossed more than 10 million discs per month and was poised for rapid growth as the retail prices of CDs and DVDs would fall below Rs 30 per disc.

        Apart from Solar CD, the Chennai-based Saro group has three more enterprises in its fold — Arun Enterprises that manufactured plastic machinery and support equipment; Arun Plasto Moulders, a major in injection moulded components and collapsible tubes; and a niche firm called Saro Plast. 'Arun Enterprises has over 3,000 customers in India and exported to 35 countries with regular consignments to Canada. While Arun Plasto Moulders is major supplier to Hindustan Lever Ltd for products like collapsible tubes and decorative caps,' said P Marimuthu, managing director, Solar CD.

        The new plant of Solar CD at the Guindy Estate would work in three shifts to produce 60,000 CDs and 40,000 DVDs per day. 'We have targeted a gross sales of Rs 12 crore in the first year of its operation and would employ 80 people to begin with,' Marimuthu said.

        Saro group has recorded a 15 per cent growth in the last few years and its turnover stood at Rs 100 crore for the year ended March 2007. 'We achieved an export of Rs 15 crore in 2006-07 and in the current fiscal, we have targeted Rs 22 crore in total exports from Saro group,' he said. Saro group has a workforce of 650 plus and recently one of its subsidiaries - Arun Plasto has been selected by Hindustan Lever as regional supplier for injection moulded parts and foil technology for making decorative caps.