ITC eyes top spot in foods business

Diversified conglomerate, ITC, is working towards becoming the number one player in foods business in the next couple of years.

Currently at number three, the foods business of the company is growing at a frenetic pace with product and category launches.

“We will be the number one player in the foods business in the next couple of years. We are now number three but we are pretty close. We already have turnover of Rs 7,100 crore in the foods business, and we are constantly launching new categories,” said B Sumant, president, fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) business, ITC.

The top player in foods sector is Parle, followed by Britannia. Industry officials quoted AC Nielsen’s June 2016 report and said Parle had turnover of about Rs 8,500 crore. According to the BSE filing, revenue of Britannia Industries in 2015-16 was Rs 7,947.90 crore.

The target to become the number one in foods was part of a bigger goal to grow the non-cigarettes FMCG business to Rs 100,000 crore by 2030.

“It means not just launching products in the existing categories but adding new categories as well. So, at any point in time, our foods business has a new business development team that is constantly analysing new categories,” said Sumant.

ITC's launches in the current year are chocolates (Fabelle), dairy whitener (Sunfresh) and coffee (Sunbean). In 2015, it entered the juices segment with B Natural and dairy with Aashirvaad Svasti ghee.

Apart from these, the foods business is represented by staples, spices, ready-to-eat, snack, bakery and confectionery.

There is a lot in the works. In the next two years, products focused on different health needs will be launched, all through foods.

“The criterion is we have to be able to make a difference. Our teams in the foods division work very closely with the ITC Hotels chefs on formulations and recipes that cater to the palate of the Indian consumer,” Sumant said.

There is a chefs’ panel that works closely with the product development team.  

New categories apart, ITC is also continuously adding products in the existing categories.

“We have launched Delishus Expressions — a gourmet range of cookies being sold online through Amazon and premium modern trade outlets. The strategy is to seed the product and sense the market before we decide to scale up,” Sumant said.

ITC is also working on European Union (EU) standard safe spices.  All the ingredients used in these range of spices would be ensured for source integrity and carefully screened by the company’s experts for over 450 chemicals, in full compliance with the stringent EU norms for food safety, as compared to the required testing for around only 10 contaminants in the Indian standards context.

It will be available at a premium compared to the existing range of spices.

“The objective is to bring an ultra-safe product for the domestic consumer. Consumers are increasingly becoming sensitive to the issue of contamination and hygiene. The spices will be launched by the end of the year,” Sumant said.