Addressing the shareholders at the annual general meeting of Century Textiles here on Monday, Birla said that gross sales of the company has grown by 6 per cent over the four-month period from April to July.

Answering shareholders query he said there was no misunderstanding or dispute regarding the operations of Century Textiles among the Birla family members.

The company chairman BK Birla controls the entire operations and the decisions are taken on merits, he added. The company will perform better in the current fiscal as the cement and paper industries have started looking up, he said. The management is expecting a profit this year, he added.

Anderson Consulting has been appointed to suggest measures for improving the operations of the company's cement and textile units. The management will take the final decisionon the actual implementation of the recommendations, he added. The consultancy firm will be paid a fee of Rs 2.9 crore for the entire exercise, he said.

The company has decided to prune the production of the rayon division by 20 per cent due to a substantial drop in demand, Birla said.

The shipping division has sold one more vessel reducing the total number to five, Birla said without divulging the price. The company does not have plans to sell any of its divisions or to resort to diversifications. This is becuase of the fact of that all the divisions are doing well, he added.

To a shareholder's query, he said there were no plans to offer a major voluntary retirement scheme. The company is providing more emphasis on the domestic sector for textile business in a marked deviation from the strategy of resorting to bulk exports. This year, only 60 per cent of the products will be exported and the rest will be sold in the domestic market.

The denim division is in the final phase of acquiring a registeredtrade mark for rapid wash denim which will improve the profitability of the division.

The tyre divsion is passing through a rough patch due to increased raw rubber prices. The lease for the company's tyre plant expires in March 2000, he said. While finacial institutions hold 17 per cent in the company, foreign instutional investors hold around 7 to 8 per cent.