Sukhjit Starch & Chemicals Ltd is fundamentally a maize alchemist - it takes ordinary corn and breaks it into more than a dozen industrial ingredients that go into everything from toothpaste and injectable glucose to corrugated boxes and cattle feed. Founded in 1943 in Phagwara, Punjab, by two entrepreneurs who set up a small corn wet milling plant grinding just 1,800 tonnes a year, the company has spent over eight decades quietly expanding to roughly 550,000 tonnes of annual grind capacity across four plants, becoming India's third-largest starch producer by volume. The recurring approach that explains everything else is a philosophy the company itself calls "conservatively aggressive" - under-promise and over-deliver, build deep relationships with blue-chip customers as their preferred supplier, and extract maximum value from every single maize kernel by selling not just starch but a full cascade of derivatives and co-products. # Business segments Three engines at different stages - a maize-processing core that generates nearly all the revenue, a food-park subsidiary that supplies it with infrastructure, and two legacy subsidiaries that are largely dormant - all anchored by the same raw material and the same multi-location manufacturing footprint. ## 1. Maize starch and derivatives: the industrial ingredient engine **The company grinds maize into starch and then upgrades much of that starch into higher-value derivatives like liquid glucose, sorbitol and dextrose, selling the entire output stream - including co-products like gluten and maize oil - to B2B customers on a per-unit basis.** - **Everything from one raw material** - the corn wet milling process splits each maize kernel into starch, germ, gluten and fibre; the starch is sold directly or converted into modified starches, liquid glucose, high maltose syrup, maltodextrin, dextrose monohydrate, dextrose anhydrous and sorbitol, while the germ yields maize oil and the gluten and fibre become protein-rich cattle and poultry feed. That means roughly 70% of operating income goes to the maize itself, but the company earns revenue from every fraction of the grain. - **Preferred supplier to household names** - the customer list includes Dabur, Nestlé, Mars Wrigley, Mondelez, Abbott and Marico, and the company holds "preferred supplier status" with multinationals and large corporates because of its quality certifications and consistent supply. These are sticky relationships in industries where switching suppliers means revalidating formulations. - **Four plants, four crop cycles** - manufacturing units in Punjab, Telangana, West Bengal and Himachal Pradesh sit close to maize-growing regions and consumption centres, with some locations benefiting from two or even three harvest seasons a year, which reduces the need for long-term storage and hedges against regional weather shocks. The company typically carries two to three months of maize inventory and stays light on finished goods unless a shipment is planned. - **The full portfolio as a competitive shield** - the company makes everything its competitors make, which lets it shift production between products depending on demand and pricing to optimise revenue. It holds roughly a 10% share of the domestic market by installed capacity, in an industry where per-capita starch consumption in India is only a quarter of China's, suggesting a long runway for volume growth. - **Captive green energy lowers the cost base** - biogas from process effluents and biomass replaces furnace oil for drying and steam generation, and a Steam Methane Reforming plant at Phagwara produces hydrogen from that biogas for captive use, cutting fossil-fuel dependence. Two plants also run Zero Liquid Discharge systems, and treated water is given to local farmers for irrigation free of charge. ## 2. Sukhjit Mega Food Park: the infrastructure landlord **A wholly owned subsidiary owns a 55-acre industrial park with shared utilities, cold storage and warehousing that supplies power, steam and water to the parent's main manufacturing unit - and was built to attract other food processors as tenants.** - **Built with government backing** - the project was sanctioned by the Ministry of Food Processing Industries and inaugurated in November 2020, with total capital expenditure of around ₹350 crores. The parent has advanced over ₹62 crores to the subsidiary, partly expected to be recovered from a government grant receivable or from the sale of infrastructure facilities. - **Shared infrastructure, shared economics** - the park provides developed industrial plots, power, steam, water, wastewater treatment, 27,000 tons of silo and dry warehouse storage, a 2-ton-per-hour vegetable IQF freezing line with 2,000 tons of deep-freeze capacity, and 3,000 tons of cold storage. The parent's Rehana Jattan starch unit - which accounts for about 35% of total maize grind and 40% of sales - runs on utilities supplied by this subsidiary. - **Under-utilised but debt-freeing** - about 45% of the park's infrastructure was not operationalised as intended investors delayed plans during COVID, and the subsidiary generated modest external revenue of around ₹12.3 crores in FY23. The term loan taken to build the park, backed by a ₹40-crore parent guarantee, was squared up in April 2025. ## 3. Legacy subsidiaries: garments and heavy machinery **Two small, majority-owned subsidiaries - one in readymade garments and one in heavy machinery manufacturing - are remnants of earlier diversification that contribute negligible revenue and are not material to the group today.** - **Scott Industries Ltd** - the parent holds 99.97% of this readymade garments business, which reported no external revenue in FY23 and is described as a "closed entity" as of August 2024. - **The Vijoy Steel & General Mills Co. Ltd** - the parent holds 96.17% of this heavy machinery manufacturer, which generated external revenue of just under ₹96 lakh in FY23 and is explicitly noted as not a material subsidiary. # Group structure and partners **The Sardana family controls the company through a 66% promoter holding, with the next generation now in executive roles and a board that mixes family members with independent directors.** - The promoter group's holding stands at 65.99% after a preferential warrant issue in 2021-22 that raised capital and a subsequent stock split in 2024 that halved the face value of shares from ₹10 to ₹5. - The group also runs a network of educational institutions - five senior secondary schools, a women's post-graduation college, a B.Ed. college and two additional women's schools - educating over 9,000 students as of FY25, a philanthropic footprint that sits alongside the industrial business.