Andrew Yule & Company Ltd (AYCL), established in 1863, came into the government fold in May 1979 and is presently under the administrative jurisdiction of Department of Heavy Industry. This is a remarkable story of a turnaround.

Andrew Yule & Co Ltd, the flagship of the Andrew Yule Group, is Government of India Enterprise under the administrative control of Department of Heavy Industry, Ministry of Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises. Presently the GoI India holds 90% equity shares of the company while the balance is held by public at large. The company's shares are listed in stock exchanges.

The Andrew Yule Group in its 151 years of proud existence have witnessed many changes in the socio-economic and political environment, affecting the fortune of the company. However, the company had the necessary resilience to withstand the adversities and came back strongly time and again. The current turnaround by AYCL testifies the inherent ability of the company to withstand the test of time.

What made this remarkable turnaround happen? It was a combined effort of Department of Heavy Industry along with the company - its Management, employees and all stakeholders - which enabled the company to achieve the turnaround in the first year and reposition itself for further growth. The company took special initiative to re-build the trust and confidence amongst the employees and to inject motivation and teamwork, which resulted in improvement in the productivity and performance.

The prime task the top management of the company undertook was to supervise and monitor the operations of all the units on a day-to-day basis. Necessary measures for improvement were also instituted that resulted in improvement in the performance. This rekindled the desired initiatives amongst the employees at all level. Necessary guidance was provided in the area of planning, procurement and coordination in the manufacturing units with which the cycle time was reduced and delivery of the goods could be made within the stipulated time frame.

One of the major concerns of the company is its Tea Division, which has 14,280 workmen and produces export quality CTC & Orthodox tea. For the Tea Division, Management had set a "Quality Vision" along with the action plans with which the company was able to improve the quality of tea produced by it. As a result of the above improvement, the Quality Ranking of various Tea Gardens have also improved which resulted in its earnings substantially.

In other manufacturing units ISO 9000 Quality Systems have been implemented. For Tea Gardens, HACCP Quality System has been implemented in five gardens, while for the balance the same is now being implemented. System procedures and policies were reviewed and modified to the extent these were found necessary. Close interactions with the customers and suppliers also helped the company to re-establish its relations with them.

The industrial relationship scenario across all the divisions is excellent which has resulted in increase of revenue from operation.

The company recognises that quality of human resources play very important role in the performance of the company and accordingly reinforced the training and development activities of the employees to enhance the value of human assets. The company recognises its social responsibilities and has been contributing regularly to the welfare and social well being of the employees by way of providing housing, medical benefit and primary education and other welfare measures to the tea garden workmen in Assam and West Bengal.

The Engineering Division is an ISO 9001: 2008 certified manufacturing unit located at Kalyani, West Bengal. It is equipped with modern tools, gadgets and machinery to make the best Industrial Fans in India. Its product range includes industrial fan (manufacturing capacity 900/year), dampers, centrifugal fans, air pollution control systems and water pollution control systems.

The Electrical Division, Kolkata, having ISO certificate, has manufacturing units at two locations, viz., Switchgear Unit and Brentford Unit both at Kolkata. The product range of these units includes vacuum circuit breaker panels, porcelain clad vacuum circuit breakers, dry type transformers, star rating distribution transformers, HV-LV automatic voltage regulators, capacitor switches and auto reclosers, etc (for detailed reference: www.andrewyule.com). The Electrical Division, Chennai, having ISO 9001: 2008 certificate, has a manufacturing unit at Chennai that produces converter transformers, generator transformers, power and distribution transformers, etc., up to 220 kV Class.

The company is presently working on the project of enhancement of capacity and rating of transformer production in technical collaboration with M/s Togliatti Transformator, Russia for upgradation of transformers to 220 kV/400 kV, etc. The company earned a PBT of Rs 25.42 crore in the fiscal year 2013-14.

One of the jewels in the crown of the Andrew Yule Group is Tide Water Oil Co (India) Ltd, which operates in a highly competitive lubricant market and targeted to reach annual turnover to Rs 1246 crore. With the amicable solution to the user related issue with the brand name of VEEDOL, Tide Water Oil Company possesses the VEEDOL brand today. This has resulted in expanding the operation globally.

Nothing succeeds like success. The company made a turnaround in 2007-08, which reinforced the self-confidence amongst the employees and it has ushered in a new hope to all stakeholders that the company is on the right growth path. Andrew Yule won the "SCOPE Excellence Award 2008-09" from Hon'ble Prime Minister and "BRPSE Turnaround Award 2011" from BRPSE in Turnaround CPSEs category. The company also received "MOU Excellence Award 2009-10" from the Department of Public Enterprises, Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises.