ITC looks to expand food portfolio to boost turnover

Diversified conglomerate ITC is looking at portfolio expansion in its food division to achieve the stated vision of the company of achieving Rs 1 lakh crore turnover from FMCG.

"The ambition set by our chairman and managing director of Rs 1 lakh crore by 2030 is something we are all working towards, with current categories as well as new categories that we are getting into," ITC divisional chief executive - foods division Hemant Malik told PTI.

The food category, which drives the fast moving consumer durable industry, is expected to contribute around 60-65 per cent of its turnover by 2030.

The revenue generated from ITC's foods business, is below Rs 9,000 crore although consumer spend is in excess of Rs 12,000 crore, with the difference due to seller discounts offered by the company.

"We are looking at the dairy space. It is a huge space, and we have launched in a few markets. We will be launching dairy beverages in a couple of months. In the snack category also there are many areas where we haven't started operating in. We will be exploring health space in snacking shortly. In juices, we launched 100 per cent pomegranate and we will be adding more," he said.

ITC recently announced it will augment its dairy portfolio by entering the paneer and milkshakes segments and is planning to launch paneer for the Kolkata market and milkshakes pan India within two months.

While milk, ghee, paneer and curd would be sold under the 'Aashirvaad' brand, there will be a different brand for milk shakes. The Kolkata-headquartered company is also planning to sell millets.

The company that acquired floor cleaner brand Nimyle, fruit beverage brand B Natural and antiseptic brand Savlon, reportedly backed out out of the USD 4 billion bid for GlaxoSmithKline's healthdrink brand Horlicks.

Asked if the company would look at the inorganic route to fuel its growth, Malik said, "Every third day there is an offer on table which we have to study and then decide if it has any merit in our overall scheme of things. Sometimes evaluation could be too high and if its worth it at this price then its okay otherwise if that category is so interesting we might as well build it. We have built so many categories, we will build two more."