In 1930, on a trip to Myanmar (then Burma), Mr. M Manal chanced upon a root that was being fed to calm elephants. Using the root ( of the plant called Rauwolfia Serpentina), the following year he decided to make a product which is believed to be the world's first ever anti-hypertension drug using a hand operated tablet punching machine. At that time, the only method for treating the problem was by draining away blood. This marked the beginning of a long journey into the world of using the ancient science of Ayurveda to prepare medicinal formulations for the mass market.

Today, Himalaya Drug Company (HDC), founded by Mr. Manal, which saw its beginnings in Dehradun and later spreading its wings to Mumbai and across the country, has it headquarters in Bangalore. The company still very much remains a Manal family concern.

Along the way, from its modest beginnings, it has grown to be a Rs 250 crore company. Himalaya, however, still holds on to its founding principles ¾ safe and affordable ayurveda for all and focused on developing side-effect free products. It has ambitious plans: HDC is now aiming for the Rs 500 crore mark by 2007 and has chosen to be a pure-play herbal contemporary medicine player after making R&D the key focus ¾ thereby taking the lead in ayurveda related R&D.

According to the company's president and CEO Ravi Prasad this speaks of the company's commitment to making ayurveda accessible to all strata of the society. '' While we figure within the top 10 units produced, we are way back in the 28th position in terms of rupee turnover. This is because of the conscious choice to make low-cost good quality products. The focus therefore is not to increase turnover by hiking drug prices,'' Mr. Prasad says.

The way forward
Going forward, the thrust will be on popularising the concept of active ayurveda ¾ showing the door to the myth that ayurveda is a slow acting method for relieving ailments.

While the HDC network has spread to almost two lakh outlets in the domestic market, the exports thrust has seen the company make inroads into 50 countries with the exports currently pegged at 12 per cent of turnover. The target is to take export turnover to 50 per cent of the total within the next few years.

While the company may still be best known for its winning products like Liv.52 (launch in 1950 and still one of the flagship products of the company) and Bonnisan (a relieving syrup for indigestion in children), HDC has a long list of other products in store including drugs for erectile dysfunction and OTC health, hair and skin products.

Incidentally, HDC recently concluded a restructuring process which saw the 'Himalaya Herbal Health Care' emerge as the unifying brand umbrella under which each product segment will operate. The product segments have broadly been classified into four segments ¾ medicinal supplements, personal health care products, pure herbs and animal health products. The popular OTC product range ¾ Ayurvedic Concepts has now been brought under the personal care products segment. Attractive packaging was also a key part of the game plan. 'Heritage Branding' which will leverage its 70 year old brand name is also set to be a key part of the branding game. Incidentally, under the earlier branding, Ayurvedic Concepts was the brand in India, while Himalaya US operated in the US and Himalaya Herbal was retained in all other geographies.

In exports¾which is the key ongoing thrust¾the opportunity opened up for the company in 1995 when it entered the US as a player in the dietary supplements market. Interestingly, true to HDC style, Mr. Prasad says the first experimental trial with exports did not happen in a conventional market but instead at the Cayman Islands.

''The market in Cayman Islands imitates the US market typically. Our first store was opened there and we could test the waters and the response to our products. You will be surprised to note that today the HDC store on the Island is listed in all the leading travelogues,'' Mr. Prasad said.

Global presence
As part of the expansion, HDC is now looking at a mix of both direct and marketing-associated presence across geographies. Currently offices in the UAE, US and Venezuela are operational and the thrust is on transferring manufacturing technology to West-Asia. The first offshore manufacturing has already been set on stream in the Middle East which also happens to be one of the largest overseas markets for HDC products.

''By next year we expect to have atleast 2-3 outsourced manufacturing alliances in West-Asia and Europe and 17 marketing JV's by the year-end,'' Mr. Prasad said. Some of the key target countries for the JV's include Romania, Poland, Czech and Slovak Republics, Malaysia, Mauritius and South Africa.

The larger mission at the moment for the company is to globalise and build its brand for its pharma grade herbal formulations with therapeutic values for the global market. ''We do not want to position ourselves only as an Indian company, which is why we have created a new brand identity that can work for us globally,'' he added.

''While the focus will be on gaining a world market for our all herbal formulations, the new areas also include women's health products, clinical research on diabetes, HIV, oncology and tropical diseases. Women's health care products will include menopausal products, uterine tonics, topical applications, etc,'' Mr Prasad said. The one risk of being in Ayurveda is that all products and companies are blindly categorised within the same segment. And according to Mr. Prasad, this could prove detrimental to public belief in the science of ayurveda.

''Many players believe in coming out with products based on 'hot' herbs (which are in vogue at that point of time). But the process of cultivating and processing the herbs are not being looked into. Therefore all the products are not as safe as they promise to be,'' he warns. HDC incidentally, has farms completely owned and managed by the company in some cases while also adopting certain villages for captive cultivation.

For this company which till date remains low-profile and modest about its growth is now embarking on a global expansion and branding exercise to build capabilities to serve the global market.