Synthite forays into domestic retail market with curry masalas

Aiming to make its presence felt in the Rs 6,500 crore branded curry masala market in India, the Kerala-based spice major Synthite has launched 10 curry masalas and spice powders under the brand name 'Kitchen Treasures'.
These include chicken and fish masalas besides six basic spice powders, chilli, turmeric and coriander, among others.
The company is targetting a market share of about Rs 30 crore in the first year, Synthite MD George Paul told reporters here last night.
The branded curry masala market in Kerala was worth Rs 600 crore, he said.
The products would be first launched in Kerala to begin with and then taken to rest of the country, he added.

There were some positive and some negative response to the soft launch of the products after which they were 're-worked' in a new avatar and launched as 'Kitchen Treasures', he said, adding, this is the first time they are entering the retail market.

Synthite has been supplying quality spices to the global market for the last 40 years under stringent quality control standards like BRC and European HACCP among others. The company sources its products from a contracted network of 10,000 acres of farms, he said.
Ashok Mani, CEO Intergrow Foods, the group company looking after the domestic consumer business, said there were plans to launch about 300 odd products in next three years in the food category, making Kitchen Treasures the state's first fully integrated packaged foods company.

The firm plans to go global in the next six months, he said.
Synthite, which was established in 1972, has five processing and extraction units in India and one in China now, with an additional unit for the spice business with a total capacity of 20,000 tonnes. Among Synthite's key overseas customers are seasoning and flavouring firms like Givaudan, IFF, Griffith Laboratories and Kerry Group.
Its spice division came up in 2006. A bulk of Synthite's sales comes from exports to the US, Europe and the Far East, where the processed food business is well developed.
By 2020, Synthite group is targeting to achieve a turnover of Rs 3,000 crore, C V Jacob, founder of Synthite and the group's Chairman, said.