Homegrown food company Britannia Industries will invest over Rs 700 crore to open five new manufacturing units in the next two-and-a-half years to meet the growing demand in different parts of India, its MD Varun Berry said on Monday. The Wadia group company, which witnessed a rapid growth sales in April-June quarter, said the company needs to set up three new plants in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu to meet the demand. It will also add new units at its existing factories in Orissa and Ranjangaon (near Pune) in Maharashtra to enhance the production capacity.
“We would have to invest more as our volume is growing aggressively. Hence, we would require many manufacturing facilities. We already have identified five facilities, in which we have to invest. We need a factory in Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Bihar and also need to enhance our capacities in Orissa and at Ranjangaon in Maharashtra,” Berry told PTI.
When asked about the timeline for the new units to come up, he said, “Those factories we would have to put up in next two to two-and-a-half year and the total capex would be Rs 700 crore. This year would be 35 per cent of that but as we move forward, next year would be the bulk of the capex”. Commenting on the company’s plans to expand its dairy business, Berry said the project is moving forward and the groundwork for the land has been done.
Stating that “a lot of things is happening in the dairy segment”, he said it would take some time and would be ready by 2021.
Presently, Britannia has a limited presence in the dairy segment, selling items like cheese.
“There would be certain dairy products, which we would cater to a certain radius from our factory. For example, yoghurt and Dahi would start from Maharashtra, then it would go wider,” he said, adding “a lot of our products such as lassi and cheese would go national”.
The dairy business contributes close to 5 per cent of the revenue and Britannia dairy products directly reach one lakh outlets.
Britannia, present in several international markets, has done well in its global sales in the April-June quarter. “We have done very well in the International markets as well. The Middle East region, which is a large size business for us, which was flat to a slight decline in the previous quarter, has been growing in single digits. All our market are growing very strong with double-digit,” he said. Nepal is the “star performer” for Britannia Industries, he said, adding the company is a market leader and it is giving a “great run rate” for the future.
Britannia Industries had put up a factory in Nepal and is now looking at neighbouring market Bangladesh. It has presence in 60 countries across the globe.
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