Birla Ericsson Optical Ltd (BE), an ISO-9002 company under the MP Birla Group of Industries, entered into the field of optical communication, by way of manufacturing fiber optic cables, in technical and financial collaboration with Ericsson Cables AB of Sweden.

During FY 2000-01, BE grew by 26 percent netting a turnover of Rs 198.00 crore as compared to Rs 157.51 crore in 1999-00. The company has also managed to come out of a negative growth in the net profit, which stood at Rs 12.82 crore. The up trend in OFC prices seems to have helped the company to shore up its sagging fortunes.

BE was amongst the earliest entrants into the OFC business in the early 1990s. It diversified into the manufacture of JFTC and switchboard cables for switching equipment at a later stage.

BE has recently augmented its installed capacity for OFC at its Rewa plant to 36,414 km from 20,000 km. The production capacity for JFTC has also been increased to 3.3-million ckm from 2.8-million ckm. BE also has the capability to produce special cables for use in medical equipment, computers and LANs, Cable TV Network or any other type of special fiber optic cables.

With the DoT’s requirement for both JFTC and OFC reaching an all time high, Birla Ericsson plans to make fresh investments into capacity expansion and backward integration projects for the current fiscal.