Incorporated in Jun.'89 as a private limited company in Maharashtra, Armour Polymers went public in Mar.'90. Armour Chemicals, the promoters' company and the flagship of the Armour group, was founded by Dr Atma B Gupta, a technocrat with extensive experience in teaching and research both in India and abroad. In Feb.'92, it came out with a public issue to part-finance a project to manufacture 324 tpa of picoline (alpha, beta and gamma) and 346 tpa of pyridine. Pyridines and picolines are widely used in pharmaceuticals, chemicals, dyestuffs and agro chemicals. Pyridine is the raw material used to manufacture chloramphenicol and chlropheniramine maleate. It is used as a solvent in the manufacture of pharmaceuticals such as norfloxacin and sulphamethoxazole. It is also used as a solvent in the dyestuff industry, as a raw material in agro-chemicals and as a de-naturant in the alcohol industry. Beta picoline is used in the manufacture of niacin and niacinamide, which have wide applications in vitamin prepartions and are also used extensively as animal feed additives. Gamma picoline is used in the manufacture of isonicotinic hydrazide and as an anti-TB drug. Alpha picoline is used in the manufacture of a wide variety of agro chemicals and 2-vinyl pyridine (used extensively in the rubber and tyre industries. The company also manufactures pyridine derivatives like cyano-pyridines. The Company tripled its production capacities of Cyanopyridines. The upgradation of the Tarapur plant from 500 TPA to 1500 TPA is being done in close co-operation with Reilly Chemicals S.A. (Reilly) Belgium, a major shareholder in the Company.