Del Monte witnesses 2-fold jump in sales of sauces, pasta during lockdown

FieldFresh Foods, which sells Del Monte brand of premium packaged food and juices, has witnessed a sharp increase of 80-200 per cent in sales of products like pasta, olive oil, sauces, as home cooking and baking activities went up during the coronavirus-induced lockdown, said a company official.

The in house consumption' has gained relevance during the pandemic and Del Monte product range such as pasta, olive oil has doubled and registered volume growth between April-July as the company augmented its retail distribution network through e-commerce and new-age distribution channels to deliver the products at consumers' reach.

However, Del Monte's out of the home channel, which caters institutional customers as QSR's, restaurants, hotels, cafes etc and contributed equally in its business, has been disrupted post-pandemic, said FieldFresh Foods CEO Yogesh Bellani.

Now FieldFresh Foods Private, a joint venture between Bharti Enterprises and Del Monte Pacific, is strengthening its B2C business, going deeper into distribution, expanding its network in metro towns to accelerate in-home consumption.

Besides, it is also trying to tap the growing relevance of the category in the smaller tier II & III towns.

In one side of our business, we are really seeing momentum. If you look at retail, in the condiment category, the ketchup category, Mayonnaise as a category, Pasta are growing massively. Pasta has doubled, our ketchup condiments are in very high percentage. A great growth is happening on the retail side,'' Bellani told PTI.

He further said, If you look at my pasta and condiment business, both of them has virtually doubled. In the condiment space, products like pasta sauces, Chinese sauces led to heavy growth. It is between 80-200 per cent growth and it is growing.

Del Monte has reported growth across category in April-July period, whether its dry fruits, condiments, ketchup and spreads as Mayonnaise as a category or even the Italian bread, pasta sauces, olive oils, Chinese sauces, Bellani added.

All of them are showing tremendous traction at the moment, he said adding Because indulgence of out of home consumption is out and the only indulgence or the mood enhancer is cooking. So, people are doing a lot of cooking and experiment. We have seen so much of growth in our packaged fruits and we see tremendous traction for that.

The company has tied up with Swiggy, Zomato to deliver the products at consumer's doorsteps. It is expanding through traditional kirana stores to online and direct to consumer channels.

We had realised very earlier in the lockdown that you have to solve for the consumer, to reach the consumer. If the consumer was not getting service, then you are losing business. Now, you could either go to the distributor to the retailer but if the distributor is not working under the lockdown, then you must find an alternate way to the retailer, said Bellani.

The company has declined to share its turnover but said FieldFresh Foods will introduce more products and categories to carry forward the growth momentum.

It has recently launched product in the health and wellness space. It also has plans to add more products into its Chinese range, ketchup at different price point targeting.

Moreover, the company would continue to invest in the expansion of its manufacturing capacity, however, Bellani declined to share the numbers.