Balaji Wafers to set up manufacturing units in south, north India

The company will be investing of Rs 200 cr in the next two years

Major snack makers like Haldiram, Bikaji and Lays (Pepsico) are in for a stiff competition as Rajkot-based snack maker Balaji Wafers Private Limited plans to enter south and north Indian markets and set up manufacturing units there with estimated investment of Rs 200 crore in the next two years.

"We are now planning to enter north and south India market within next two years and for that we are looking for strategic partnership with local players", said Keyur Virani, director of Balaji Wafers. "We are searching land to set up our manufacturing plant in Uttaranchal and Madhya Pradesh. Moreover, company is also considering to set up production facility at Hyderabad in south India," he said, adding that they would be investing Rs 200 crore to set up manufacturing units.

According to Virani size of organised snacks market was about Rs 8,000 crore while unorganised market was around Rs 10,000-12,000 crore in India.

Balaji Wafers is having about 65 percent market share in western Indian snack market. Company is present in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Rajasthan and some parts of Madhya Pradesh. It has turnover of over Rs 1,000 crore and is expecting 25-30 percent growth in 2013-14.

"As Indian snack market is huge with major portion still unorganized, players like us have very good potential to grow in new areas. Our direct competition will be with Haldiram and Bikaji in north India while in south India we will have to compete with national players like Lays," Virani said

The company also recently doubled its production capacity at its Valsad plant in south Gujarat in line with its strategy to expand beyond west India.

"We had invested about Rs 50 crore in Valsad plant and our production capacity has been doubled compare to Rajkot plant mainly for wafers. It is India's largest production line," claimed Virani.

Rajkot plant produces 1,200 kg potato wafers per hour while in Valsad plant production capacity is around 2,500 kg per hours.