Future Consumer, Hain Celestial to manufacture Terra Chips

Kishore Biyani-led Future Consumer, which entered in a joint venture with US-based Hain Celestial Group, today said it is setting up a chips manufacturing plant in Tumkur, Karnataka for an undisclosed sum.
Future Consumer had forged a joint venture with Tilda Hain India, part of US Hain Celestial Group, last month to manufacture, market and distribute various food products in the health and wellness category such as chips, non-dairy beverages and baby foods under brands like Terra, Garden of Eatin', Sensible Portions, Dream and Earth's Best.
"We will be producing Terra chips here. On chips specifically, we have formulised most of the things. The first plant in Tumkur in Karnataka is coming up by the end of this calendar year. This plant will also be used to export to the neighbouring countries," Biyani told reporters here without sharing the investment details.

Terra chips is currently retailed across 165 Big Bazaar outlets and Biyani said once the products are manufactured in India, the price of the chips would significantly reduce to less than Rs 100 compared to Rs 400 at present.
The two companies are also developing products in the baby food and non-dairy beverage categories.
"We will take a lot of the US brands and bring them here. Future Group and Hain Celestial would be making investments into building manufacturing facilities to produce these products," Hain Celestial founder, president and chief executive officer Irwin Simon said.

Beside these three categories, the New York-based company is looking at herbal teas, different types of spreads to be introduced in India.

Hain Celestial, an organic and natural products company, is also looking at acquisitions in the country.
"There is a great merger and acquisition strategy here. There are some start-up companies which are pretty interesting and that is something we will continuously look at in this market place. We would love to buy one or two brands in India," Simon added.