Five years after it started as a distribution company, specializing in imported and made-in-Nepal consumer products, Nimbus has now expanded into poultry business. "We are targeting the market also in India", says Jagadish Prasad Agrawal, Chairman of the company.

The poultry business in Nepal is costlier than in India, basically because of the higher cost of feed. Moreover, the feed quality itself is not good. As a result, the mortality rate is very high among the fowls in Nepal. The feed conversion ratio too is found to be high in Nepal. All these facts are related to the quality of feed. "So we set up a feed factory in Birganj – called Probiotech. It is fully equipped with modern technology laboratory to test the quality of the raw material as well as of the finished product", says Agrawal.

There are three types of products in poultry feed: pre-mixed, feed concentrate, and the feed proper. Probiotech is planning to produce all three types. The pre-mixed variety is already being produced. "Now we are preparing to start producing the concentrate. We are waiting for the machine to arrive for that", says Agrawal.

In poultry business, about 70% component of the cost is on feed. That is followed by medicines – both curative and preventive. Agrawal says, his company (Nimbus) will provide the medicines and feed in an integrated way. For this purpose, the company has collaborated with Elanco, one of the top companies in USA in poultry medicines. However, Elanco is not in preventive medicines. It is specialized in growth medicines and tonics.

Elanco people are regularly coming here and educating the farmers so as to bring down the mortality rate, says Agrawal. The poultry mortality rate in Nepal is about 15%, while it is 2% in India. Seminars are being conducted at Narayangarh with local technical consultants of Nepali farmers in the presence of Elanco representatives so as to educate them in better poultrycare.

Agrawal says, the market is good also in India for pre-mixed feed and the feed concentrate. "We are looking for market in the Indian states neighbouring to Nepal, such as Bihar, West Bengal and Assam", he explains. But right now, the company is concentrating on expanding and consolidating the business in Narayangarh area.

Still, Agrawal says, "we are not in direct competition with the local feed millers". According to him, his company is supplying inputs (such as de-oiled cake) needed by the local feed manufacturers. The objective is to make the entire feed business integrated and thus able to conform to certain quality standards.

While Nimbus Marketing was set up in 1996 as a distribution company, Nimbus International Pvt. Ltd. was formed the year after with three partners as shareholders. Probiotech is a separate company with the similar shareholding structure as that of Nimbus International. While Probiotech is to concentrate in manufacturing, the distribution and service parts of the business is looked after by Nimbus.

Poultry business has other dimension as well - those of hatchery and slaughterhouse. But slaughtering is not our field, says Agrawal, a member of the Marwari community which is religiously vegetarian. "Poultry farming itself is another business with very good prospects, but that is not an easy business as I have realized after closely observing it for some time", he adds.

However, there is a need for these all aspects of the business to be integrated so as to achieve full efficiency in this sectors opines Agrawal indicating to the untapped prospects in the industry.

Poultry farming in Nepal is done also in a very small scale with 10 or 15 birds. In the beginning, Nimbus is not going to address that market. "We are targeting the big farmers in the beginning", says Agrawal.

Mrs. Bhavani Devi Sharma has again taken over as the acting General Manager of Nepal Bank Ltd. after winning a Supreme Court Writ quashing the earlier decision of the bank’s board of directors to appoint Bhavanath Upadhyaya as the General Manager.

Arun Parajuli has joined NIC Bank Ltd. as the Chief Account Officer in its Corporate Office. He was earlier Assistant Manager at KPMG Nepal.

Jitendra Basnet has left Standard Chartered Bank Nepal Ltd. where he was Senior Manager.

Prabhat R. Pandey, has rejoined Hotel Yak & Yeti as Assistant F&B Manager. He was in Soaltee Crowne Plaza as Assistant Banquet Manager, a position he took up about one and a half year ago leaving Yak & Yeti as Assistant Manager (F&B).

Rakhi Singh has joined Soaltee Crowne Plaza as Finance Controller. She was earlier Assistant Finance Controller in Hotel Radisson Kathmandu for the last three years.

Gyanendra Dhungana has joined Nepal Rastra Bank as Deputy Director (Inspection Department). Earlier, he was Manager (Credit Control) and Company Secretary in Bank of Kathmandu.

AS Siddhu has joined Chaudhary Group as Senior Manager (Sales & Marketing).

Ajay Shrestha has joined Bank of Kathmandu as Assistant General Manager. Previously he was working in Standard Chartered Bank Nepal as Manager-Credit.

Vivek Singh has joined ORG-MARG as Senior Research Associate after completing his MBA from Kathmandu University.

Gaurav Sherchan has left ORG-MARG where he was Senior Research Associate. He has opened another research organisation, ORION Pvt. Ltd., teaming up with Pawan Adhikari who for some time worked also as Executive Director in Computer Association of Nepal (CAN), and Subha Narsingh Bhattachan, who runs the ad agency, Perspective.

Narayan Bajaj, a partner is BRS Neupane & Co, the firm that represents of Deloitte Touche Tohamatsu in Nepal, has left the firm. He was also the Vice Chairman of Himalayan Bank Ltd. in the earlier board of Directors of the Bank. Now he is also elected the Treasurer of Garment Association of Nepal.

Deepak Dhoj Khadka has joined Hotel Yak & Yeti as the Liason Manager. Earlier he was Marketing Executive in APCA Nepal (P) Ltd.

Navneet Nagpal has been appointed the General Manager of Hotel Yak & Yeti, a five star property in Kathmandu. He is with Yak & Yeti since 1997. As its front office Manager he had developed "Yield Management" tool for the hotel. Nagpal is an Indian national and replaces Craig Newton, an Australian, who left the hotel from February 1 this year.

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