IOL Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals Limited, a leading organic chemicals manufacturer and supplier, has announced that it will hire around 400 new employees by the end of this year.

The company has an existing workforce of over 900 professionals.

Market experts believe that despite the global economic slowdown, this is a big step by Ludhiana-based IOLCP towards preparing itself to tap global opportunities in the pharmaceutical industry.

According to company officials, the company's new manpower will primarily take care of the proposed expansion of its manufacturing capacity with an investment worth Rs 216 crore.

The capacity expansion for its various product lines includes; forward integration in chemical division as well as backward integration in pharmaceutical division to produce raw materials for its flagship product Ibuprofen; and increase in cogeneration of power.

Recently, IOLCP has got coveted certifications for exports of its pharmaceutical products, Ibuprofen, to various countries. The company intends to produce 4800 tablets per annum of acetyl chloride, which is a raw material used to manufacture Ibuprofen.

Apart from latest development, the company is also constructing a new captive co-generation plant with additional capacity of 13 MW in addition to the existing cogeneration plant of 4 MW.

The plant is expected to begin working by the end of year 2010 and will generate a total of 17MW of power for exclusive consumption by IOLCP s manufacturing facilities.