Annapoorna Masalas' new strategy targets revenue of Rs 500 cr in next 5 yrs

As part of its transformation plan, one of the country's oldest spice processing brands Annapoorna Masalas and Spices, has adopted a new strategy under ‘Annapoorna 2.0’, which targets around Rs 500 crore in the next five years. The company is also eyeing its own retail network.

The  45-year-old Coimbatore-based brand is now headed by third-generation owners under the leadership of Executive Director Vijay Prasad, who is spearheading Annapoorna 2.0.

Last year, the company clocked around Rs 35 crore in revenues and this year it is planning to close with Rs 40 crore.

Sree Annapoorna Foods (SAF's) Executive Director Vijay Prasad said that the company has come out with a new corporate identity including a logo, tagline, product packaging and marketing collaterals as the first step in the transformation journey ahead.

The new look and feel with the brand promise of ‘the taste that unites’, signals a new chapter for the company, while retaining its rich heritage and family roots. One of the USP for SAF will be regional variants, apart from regular spices and blended spices, which will help the company take on the competition including MTR, Sakthi Masala, Aachi and other players in the market.

Masala is one of the biggest consumed products in the kitchen and it is used daily. The market is estimated to be around Rs 1 trillion a year and branded players account for 20-25 per cent.

The company plans to expand its current product portfolio of 53 products and 101 SKUs to over 80 products in the next three years.

Annapoorna will take a differentiated approach to enable this growth, by not only covering the entire gamut of pure and blended spices, but more importantly by deep-diving into India’s rich food heritage and culture, to revive recipes that are unique to small regions across the country and widen its offering to new, innovative subcategories, said Prasad.

Recently, the company set up a 35,000 sq. ft manufacturing plant at Coimbatore and has a capacity of 35 metric tonnes per day to support its growth plans.

Speaking about distribution, Prasad said, Annapoorna is on its way to strengthen its current retail and distribution network to 500 distributors in the next one year. To begin with, Annapoorna will expand across the Tamil Nadu market to cover over 50,000 outlets across cities, towns, and villages as compared to 15,000 now. This will be followed by geographical expansion to other neighbouring states in the region.

The company is also looking at setting up its own branded stores. To start with, it will set up one each at Coimbatore and Chennai.

Since its inception in the 1975, Coimbatore-based Annapoorna started with a hotel. Founded by K Damodaraswamy Naidu in 1970 as Sree Annapoorna Gayatri Foods and led by R Velumani from the 1980s, Annapoorna is the epitome of rich and strong traditional values, as much as its recipes.