Incorporated in Aug.'92, Uniroyal Marine (UML) commenced business during Sep.'92 taking over an existing unit called 'Mermaid Foods' along with the acquisition of land. The company is involved in the business of purchasing, processing, curing, canning, freezing, selling, exporting and dealing in marine products. Uniroyal came out with a public issue during Aug.'93 to set up facilities to process 135000 tpa of IQF and 4200 tpa of Block Frozen sea products at Vengalam Village, near Calicut, Kerala. Commercial operations commenced from March 1994. Exports are mainly to China, Australia, Malaysia, USA, South Africa and other European countries. UML is one of the few companies enjoying the Green Channel status for export of cooked shrimp to the US. Industry recession, depression in the international market and high cost of procurement of raw material led to put pressure on its margins. The ban of marine imports from India by the European Union in 1997 further increased its losses. The company upgraded its plant and factory to the standards of the European Union and after approval of the EU, exports to European countries was re-started during 1998-99. This led to a turnaround in the company's profit margin making it a profit making concern inspite of adverse industry conditions. UML has installed the HACCP system in the factory and complies with the guidelines issued by the EU. It has now debonded from the 100% EOU status to the Export Promotion Capital Goods Scheme to avail of the Duty Entitlement Pass Book Scheme.