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| looking beyond oil |
Mumbai, April 1: Ruchi Soya, a bulk commodity firm with a presence in the soya beans and edible oil market, is transforming itself into a 100 per cent packaged foods maker.
The company has a turnover of over Rs 3000 crore but only Rs 800 crore of this comes from branded products. It will take the promoters five years to complete the makeover.
Amrita Shahra, the young Carnegie Mellon graduate from the Shahra family, which owns the company, will spearhead Ruchi?s transformation into a fast-moving consumer goods firm with an array of mega-brands under its belt.
?The thrust is going to be on health foods,? said Shahra. The company has in its portfolio brands like Nutrela and Ruchi Gold ? perceived as health products.
?Nutrela signifies health but we don?t need another product in this category,? she adds. According to Shahra, much of the spending on capacity has already been made. The focus will be on building brands in the coming months.
The firm recently set up an edible oil refinery at Patalganga (Maharashtra) at a cost of Rs 150 crore. ?With this, we will have production facilities within 500 km of major markets,? Shahra said.
No data on the country?s soya foods industry is available, but estimates put it close to 1 lakh tonnes every year. Branded fare accounts for only 20 per cent of this. These products are, however, growing at the rate of 15-18 per cent annually. Industry sources say the increase is the sharpest in soya-based beverages, tofu, flour and ready-to-eat products.
These estimates have led to Ruchi Soya to launch another soya variant, which is tastier than the regular granules. ?It is a ready-to-cook product and will help increase our consumer base in the long term,? Shahra said.
The company recently launched Nutrela Flavours in Calcutta. It modified the Chinese Manchurian flavour and is poised to introduce Nutrela Flavours in all three variants in select cities.
?We will target select outlets, such as upscale provision stores and self-service counters, in the next 2-3 months. The product will later be distributed widely. We have zeroed in on 13000 to 15000 such outlets across the country,? Shahra said.
?We have an extensive distribution network. Around 95-98 distributors will launch Nutrela Flavours. At present, they stock Nutrela Soya foods and oils. A national launch is planned in the coming months,? she added.