Calcutta, June 23: Priya Food Products Limited plans to expand the capacity of its plants at an investment of Rs 10 crore.

“We plan to increase our manufacturing capacity from 50 tonnes per day to 80 tonnes per day,” chairman G. P. Agarwal said while introducing cricket player Ashish Nehra as the company’s new brand ambassador here yesterday.

“We are installing new packaging machinery at the plants,” added Agarwal. The company has three plants at Agarpara, Narayanpur and Madhyamgram in Bengal.

Priya Food has registered a turnover of Rs 50 crore in 2003-04 and is targeting an annual growth rate of 10 to 20 per cent. It is also planning to introduce four to five new brands this year, both in biscuits and cookies segments.

Currently, the company exports mostly to Bangladesh. However, it is also in talks with South Africa, Dubai and Nepal for exporting its products to these markets.

According to Agarwal, both the urban as well as the rural markets respond to Priya products almost equally. Growth has also been same in these two markets.

Priya Food Products is an established brand name in east India and is currently focussing on consolidating its presence in the south.

In addition to this, the company plans to penetrate the west and north India in the next two to three years.

The company has set a budget of Rs 2 crore for marketing in 2004-05.

The brand promotion exercise with Nehra will cost the company Rs 50 lakh. The term of the contract with Nehra is one year.

“Priya is an extremely popular brand all over the country and I hope that the relationship with Priya Food Products will continue for a long time,” said Nehra.