Catch spices to add flavour to export markets

Having established itself as a strong brand in the domestic market, Catch salt and spices, part of the Rs 1,600 crore DS Group, will soon explore the export markets.

The company is firming up plans to start exporting to countries with sizeable population of the Indian Diaspora, such as the USA, Canada, West Asia and Singapore.

“The export of our Catch range of spices to these countries will start by the second quarter of 2010-11 financial year,” DS Group (food division) head Satish Kumar Rustagi told Business Standard here.

Catch spices have a market share of about 7 per cent in the organised spices segment in the country. The organised segment accounts for under 15 per cent of the consolidated spices market in India, estimated at Rs 35,000 crore annually.

“However, the organised segment is growing fast, both in the urban and rural areas at the rate of almost 40 per cent,” he informed.

Besides, the company is in the process of penetrating deeper in the South India market.

“The Catch spice brand is touted to become a Rs 175 crore brand by the end of 2011 fiscal from over Rs 100 crore at present,” Rustagi added. The Noida-based DS Group has interests in FMCG, hospitality, packaging, rubber thread and infrastructure spaces. The company is developing a number of star hotel properties in Rajasthan, Uttarakhand and West Bengal.