CenturyPly opens largest wood panel plant at Badvel, to employ 2,000 people in 3 years

Badvel: Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy inaugurated CenturyPly’s largest integrated wood panel manufacturing plant at Badvel in YSR Kadapa district. Under the company’s current expansion plan of Rs 2,000 crores, Rs 1,000 crores have been invested in the state.

The Rs 1,000 crores is set to be used for Phase 2 of the expansion and generate 78 per cent of local employment in Andhra Pradesh. The company plans to employ more than 2,000 people over the next three to five years.

As the Government has earmarked this region as a potential agro-industry hub, this initiative of CenturyPly marks the beginning of a series of investments of other industrial entities that will follow leading eventually to making it a significant hub of furniture for the entire country.

The company had allocated an investment of close to Rs 1,000 crores for the laminate, MDF and PVC units in Andhra Pradesh. The first phase of production comprises of two large-size presses of laminates, which are operational currently. The MDF unit and PVC Unit are in the advanced stage of commissioning.

Additional capacities are being developed in three units with 60,000 CBM in Hoshiarpur, Punjab in the plywood category, in particle board 2,40,000 CBM in Chennai, Tamil Nadu and in laminates 8,55,000 sheets, 3,13,500 CBM in MDF and PVC of 15,000 tonnes in Badvel, Andhra Pradesh.

Speaking on the occasion, Keshav Bhajanka, executive director, CenturyPly said, “This will contribute to the development of Badvel area into a hub of agroindustry in Andhra Pradesh. We have invested Rs 700 crores in MDF and Rs 250 crores in laminates and PVC in the first phase. The new unit will increase our production capacity in the MDF plant by 950 M3, which will double our footprint in MDF. The second phase will see an investment of Rs 1,000 crores in expansion plans.”