Calcutta, Dec. 19: Tata Chemicals is betting on the fast moving consumer goods segment to drive its business in the coming years. The company expects the turnover of the segment to increase from around Rs 1,000 crore at present to Rs 4,000 crore in the next four to five years.

'Our existing businesses are soda ash and fertilisers and now we are increasing our consumer products portfolio in wellness and nutrition areas and the food segment. We are also looking at agriculture and actually concentrating on areas such as plant, crop nutrition and seeds. These are the two basic areas that we want to grow in retaining our existing business portfolio,' said P.K. Ghose, executive director and chief financial officer of Tata Chemicals.

R. Mukundan, managing director of Tata Chemicals, said the focus of the company was to grow organically in pulses, spices, seeds and vegetables.

'In pulses, we are quite confident that we would reach close to Rs 250 crore in the (current) full year. It is growing at the rate of 50-60 per cent every year,' said Mukundan on the sidelines of a book launch commemorating the company's 75th anniversary.

He added that the pulses segment itself could grow around Rs 1,000 crore over the next three to four years. 'We are now present in 70,000 stores and by year end we will be in 1 lakh stores,' he said.

The company has already entered into a memorandum of understanding with four state governments - Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu - where they provide high yielding seeds and procure pulses from farmers.

Mukundan also said there was a rising demand for packed consumer products in the wellness and nutrition segment, which would drive the growth of the FMCG sector of Tata Chemicals.

'The market is moving from loose to packets and within packets consumers want reliable brands,' he said.

Ghose said the company was unlikely to see major growth in its fertilisers segment. But there are plans to expand capacity in the soda ash business in the US.

'Today we are about 2.5-2.6mt in the US, which will move to about 2.8mt in phase 1 with hardly any capital expenditure.'