Dabur Foods To Break-Even By End-Fiscal

Dabur Foods Ltd, a fully owned subsidiary of Dabur India Ltd, will break even by the end of the current financial year. The company had reported a loss of Rs 8.3 crore on a turnover of Rs 37.12 crore in 2000-01. The company has projected to wipe out its accumulated losses in another three years' time.

"We will achieve a turnover of Rs 50 crore by the end of the current fiscal, reaching break-even point," Amit Burman, chief executive officer of Dabur Foods, said. He said that more than 80 per cent of the company's turnover during the current fiscal will come from Real -- its fruit juice brand.

The company, which has been focussing on promoting Real, claims to have a 55 per cent market share of the Rs 100 crore juice market. The company also owns "Hommade" cooking paste range which includes such products as garlic, ginger and tamarind paste.

He said that the company will gradually roll out various new products over the next couple of years in the beverages market, apart from launching new flavours under the Real range. Burman said that these products could be grouped under new brands. "We plan to have three or four strong brands in our portfolio over the next three years," Burman said.

However, he said that the company has no plans to enter the packaged water business as it is too crowded.

Elaborating on the business model being followed by Dabur Foods, Burman said the company will first build up the Real brand, that is why it's focusing all its energy on it. "We expect Real volumes to grow by another 30-35 per cent during the next financial year," Burman said.

Meanwhile, an independent research carried out by Blackstone Market Facts has revealed that Dabur Foods's "Real Activ" has become the preferred unsweetened juices brand within two months of its launch. While "Real Activ" range of unsweetened juice is available in orange and apple flavours, Real fruit juice comes has various flavours such as mango, pineapple, orange, mixed fruit, guava, grapes and tomato.