Candid Confections

Dhanjibhai A Maksana claims that if gets the license, he could manufacture microlight aircraft at the cost of a small car — for just Rs 3.5 lakh! Maksana’s company — Makson Pharmaceuticals — may not get the license to produce the planes yet, but it’s certainly flying high in the business it knows best — making candies and confectionery for the world.

The 50-year-old chairman of the Surendranagar (north Gujarat) company claims it is the biggest contract manufacturer in the world for hard-boiled sugar candies. And look who’s on its client list — Cadbury, Nestle, Unilever, Procter & Gamble, Boots Piramal, Parry’s and Nutrine, to name a few.

The food processing industry, however, knows Maksana more for his reengineering skills than for his manufacturing abilities. Of his Rs 100-crore revenue, barely Rs 12-crore comes from the contract-manufacturing business. He claims to develop machines at one-tenth the price of imported machines. Needless to say, the country’s best-known candy and confectionary companies prefer Makson machines over imported machines.

He has designed low-cost confectionary manufacturing machines after observing and learning at trade fairs how imported machines work. In fact, it took him eight long years to design and build the first indigenous confectionary machine. The inspiration came when he visited an exhibition in Delhi and saw a German machine. After procuring a leaflet of that machine, he began his experiments. Strong observation and mechanical sense made him persist despite failures. “

For a few years, production at my existing factory came to a naught. But making machines is my hobby. I cannot resist myself,” the mechanical engineer says passionately. Maksana even collected old and outdated machines and after constant trial and error developed his first machine in 1980.

Today, the company is also gearing up to manufacture chocolates. “We will be ready to roll out chocolates at our units in the next four months and we have a huge order from a US chocolate maker to produce their whole range for their global markets,” Maksana says, without giving details.

Makson supplies nearly 70 types of confectionery equipment as well as manufacturing confectionery for leading companies. The group produces nearly 100% of candy products (Vicks) for P&G, ParleConfi, Dabur and 80% of all Eclairs.

The company is considering plans to expand it production capacity to three-fold from 100 tonnes a day to 300 tonnes a day. It would import high-speed machines from Italy, Germany and the UK for doubling capacity. Maksons is also planning to set up a confectionary export-unit near a special economic zone. The total investment is likely to be around Rs 300 crore in the next two years. Maksana says, “Our clients would help us in providing machinery and equipment for this expansion.”

A Hyderabad plant manufactures Vicks Vaporub that is exported to Japan, Australia and Indonesia, in addition to catering to the Indian market. Unilever contract manufactures ‘Pepsodent’ sugar-free candy for those with diabetes, Boots-Piramal outsources Strepsils and Coca-Cola outsourced Sunfil Juicey. Popular cough drops of Shreya, Cipla and Fermenta are also produced by Makson.

While Maksana is busy getting orders from global brands, his only son is designing machines for them. Every company has its own requirement and segment. More, the demand for various products is constantly changing in terms of tastes and designs. Will he launch his own brand one day? Maksana says he wants the sweet taste of outsourcing to linger. And he is content making the machines that make the candies.