New Delhi: Balmer Lawrie & Co Ltd plans to spend nearly Rs 500 crore on capital expenditure (capex) over the next three years, Chairman and Managing Director Adhip Nath Palchaudhuri said on Monday. The diversified public sector enterprise will put most of the money into expanding its rail, third-party logistics (3PL) and travel businesses.
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Railway logistics will take the largest share of the estimated outlay, at Rs 200-250 crore, Palchaudhuri said on the sidelines of the company's 109th annual general meeting (AGM). Around Rs 100 crore has been earmarked for routine operational capex in the company's other existing verticals, which are packaging, greases and lubricants, and chemicals.
A further Rs 50-60 crore will go into expanding 3PL operations, he said. Alongside this, Balmer Lawrie is investing in cold chain facilities and small packaging units for greases and lubricants. It is also launching new product variants in its packaging and travel businesses.
The company's logistics roadmap targets a fleet of 15 railway rakes. It now operates three, all on lease. For the first time, Balmer Lawrie will buy rakes outright, and it has floated tenders for three of them. After securing new rail freight business from iron ore miner NMDC, it will add seven more rakes in the first phase, partly through leasing, to build capacity.
"Railway logistics has emerged as a very strong segment for us where we are putting in significant capex. We are right now running three rakes, and we intend to grow much more, aiming to bring that to around 15 rakes," Palchaudhuri said.
The cost of the rakes explains why rail dominates the spending plan. "With one rake typically costing around Rs 20 to 25 crore, acquiring railway assets will account for a major chunk of our Rs 500 odd crore capex over the next few years," he said.
In 3PL, Balmer Lawrie is building a hub-and-spoke network around a central hub at Dankuni. Spokes are being extended to Siliguri, Guwahati and Bhubaneswar, among other locations, to widen the company's regional reach. The new network adds to the existing logistics business, which already offers integrated supply chain services through container freight stations, warehouses and specialised cold chain facilities.
Outside logistics, the company is spending selectively in its greases and lubricants business. It is setting up small-filling packaging lines at regional units, and new lines in Kolkata are already running. Similar lines are planned for the south. The aim is to cut freight costs and grow the company's presence in the retail market.
Industrial packaging is Balmer Lawrie's core division, and the company holds a 35-37 percent share of the market for 210-litre steel drums. Its expansion capex in the division is going into adjacent products, including smaller drums and intermediate bulk containers (IBCs).
In his address to shareholders at the AGM, Palchaudhuri said the company was adjusting its operations to an increasingly volatile global environment. Geopolitical developments and national security concerns, he said, were having a growing influence on global trade. He pointed to the Gulf crisis, rising tariff protectionism and disruptions to established supply chains, which he said had made uncertainty the "new normal".
The company's answer, he said, is to stay diversified, which has always been its core philosophy. Diversification gives it a natural hedge against shocks. During COVID, for instance, travel slumped but the logistics division grew sharply and cushioned the company's finances.
In line with this, Balmer Lawrie is adding supply chain touchpoints and placing more weight on domestic logistics, including its new rail and 3PL businesses. Palchaudhuri said the company wanted to build resilience by serving these areas of domestic economic activity, so that it was not exposed only to disruptions in global trade.
The Travel and Vacations business is being aligned with the growth in domestic tourism in the same way. Palchaudhuri said its tour packages, retail vacations and meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE) offerings had been shaped around this trend. According to the company, domestic tourism remains a major part of the travel sector, with visits rising by nearly 52.7 percent between January and September 2025.
Technology is another area of focus as Balmer Lawrie enters its 160th year. Palchaudhuri said the next chapter would be defined by three things: the company's long legacy of resilience, its alignment with national priorities and its adoption of technology.
Balmer Lawrie reported revenue of Rs 2,785 crore in 2025-26. The company has projected earlier that this could double by 2030.
The chemicals division posted its highest-ever turnover and profit in 2025-26. The industrial packaging business continued upgrading the technology at its six manufacturing plants, while the greases and lubricants business is developing eco-friendly and synthetic lubricants.
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In travel and vacations, registrations on the exclusive travel portal for central government employees rose 25 percent. Ticketing volumes grew 15 percent year-on-year. The vacations, retail and MICE divisions each recorded their highest-ever gross toplines.
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