FACT at Udyogamandal: India's First Fertiliser Company, Explained

FACT, the Fertilisers and Chemicals Travancore, was founded in 1943 at Udyogamandal on the outskirts of Kochi, making it the first large-scale fertiliser manufacturer in what would become independent India. It nearly collapsed in the mid-2010s and needed a government rescue package to survive, and its results since have swung between profit and loss year to year, including a net loss in FY26. Here is how a Travancore-era factory became a national PSU, and where it actually stands now.

• Who actually founded FACT, and why Udyogamandal?
• What does FACT actually make?
• How close did FACT come to shutting down?
• Is FACT profitable today?

Who actually founded FACT, and why Udyogamandal?

FACT was incorporated in 1943 by Maharajah Sree Chithira Thirunal Balarama Varma of the Kingdom of Travancore, initially as a private-sector venture promoted by Seshasayee Brothers. Production of ammonium sulphate began in 1947 at Udyogamandal, on the banks of the Periyar near Eloor, a site chosen for river water access and proximity to the port at Kochi for importing raw materials and exporting finished fertiliser. The company moved into the public sector in 1960, and the Government of India became its majority shareholder in 1962; today the government holds a 90 percent stake. FACT was Kerala's original industrial anchor, well before Kochi's other big industrial names, our explainers on Cochin Shipyard and the BPCL Kochi Refinery cover what came after.

What does FACT actually make?

Fertiliser, mainly, plus a set of industrial byproducts. The core products are ammonia, sulfuric acid, ammonium phosphate-sulfate sold under the FACTAMFOS brand, and ammonium sulfate, alongside caprolactam, a petrochemical input for nylon, made at a plant commissioned in 1990 to 91. FACT runs two production units today: the original Udyogamandal Complex at Eloor and the newer Cochin Division at Ambalamedu. Byproducts including gypsum, nitric acid and soda ash come off the same processes, part of why the site has stayed industrially useful even through the company's leaner years. FACTAMFOS in particular is a household name to Kerala's farmers even if the corporate story behind it is not, it is one of the most widely used phosphatic fertilisers in the state, which is part of why a near-collapse in the mid-2010s mattered well beyond the factory gates at Eloor.

How close did FACT come to shutting down?

Closer than most people in Kochi realise. By the mid-2010s, continuous losses had pushed FACT's net worth into negative territory, roughly Rs 545 crore in the red, with annual losses running into the hundreds of crores. The Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers moved a Cabinet note for a rescue package of nearly Rs 1,000 crore, made up of interest-free loans, grants and waived debt, to keep the company solvent. A separate long-term investment plan of roughly Rs 8,200 crore was drawn up alongside it to modernise production. It is an odd fact to sit with for the country's first fertiliser company, but for a few years the real question was whether FACT would survive at all, not whether it would grow.

Is FACT profitable today?

Unevenly, and the most recent run of results is genuinely rough. FACT recorded a net profit of Rs 128 crore in FY24 on revenue of Rs 5,051 crore, then a smaller Rs 41 crore profit in FY25 as revenue eased to Rs 4,051 crore, including a strong Rs 71 crore fourth quarter that year. But FY26 reversed that: despite revenue growing to roughly Rs 5,724 crore, the company closed the year with a net loss of around Rs 40 crore, dragged down by loss-making quarters in the second half of the year, and it carried a further consolidated net loss into the first quarter of FY27. Three of the last four reported quarters have been loss-making. Fertiliser margins move with global raw material prices in ways a single company cannot fully control, so treat any one quarter's number as a data point, not a verdict, but the honest read right now is a company still swinging between profit and loss year to year, not one that has settled into reliable profitability. What the rescue package bought FACT was survival and a shot at breaking even in a good year, not a guarantee, and Eloor's oldest factory is still proving that quarter by quarter.