Vivid Chemicals (VCL) is engaged in the manufacture of tobias acid, a dye and pigment intermediate, and a naphthalene derivative used as a component to manufacture derivatives of value-added products such as sulpho tobias acid, J-acid and N methyl J-acid which in turn are used as intermediates for direct and reactive dyes. The company is promoted by Sudhir M Mody who has over 20 years of exposure to the business of dyes, dye intermediates and chemicals. It is the only manufacturer of tobias acid in the organised sector. The company has a plant to manufacture hydrochloric acid which was set up in 1973. VCL had initially set up a project to manufacture beta naphthol (BN) in 1987 at Tarapur, Maharashtra. But it faced problems, as the prices of its main raw material, naphthalene, increased. As the unfavourable movement in the prices of the major raw material affected VCL's performance, the company modified its facilities in 1992 so as to produce tobias acid instead of beta naphthol. The company had entered the capital market to part-finance an increase in the tobias acid capacity from 720 tpa to 960 tpa. The company also has facilities to manufacture phenyl J-acid, acetyl J-acid and rhoduline acid. While these are used in the dyestuff industry, sulpho tobias acid is also used in the electronics industry for coating IC circuit boards. The company exports 40% of its products to Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, Europe, Indonesia and the US.