Snapshots of Food Industry News
Reliance Retail Ventures Acquires Shri Kannan Departmental Store
Reliance Retail Ventures Limited has acquired 100 percent stake in Tamil Nadu-based Shri Kannan Departmental Store Private Limited for Rs 152.5 crore. The acquisition will strengthen Reliance’s retail operations and presence in Tamil Nadu and will further enable its retail and new commerce initiatives. RIL has been focusing on retail along with ‘new commerce,’ which is an offline-to-online initiative. The company aims to penetrate India’s retail market through its new commerce initiative, which will link producers, traders, small merchants, brands and consumers through technology.
Shri Kannan Departmental Store retails fruits and vegetables, dairy, staples, home and personal care and general merchandise to consumers. It was incorporated in 1999 and currently operates 29 stores across Coimbatore and nearby areas with a retail area of over 6 lakh square feet. The departmental store reported revenues of Rs. 415 crores from operations in FY2018-19.
Typhoo India Launches Three Herbal Tea Variants
Typhoo India has expanded its organic herbal tea portfolio with the launch of three new variants, which are Purifying Super Greens, Digestive Power Seeds and Immunity-boosting Three Tulsi. The Super Greens is a powerful blend of Moringa, Matcha, Sencha, and Green Tea, and an excellent brew for its cleansing and purifying properties. Power Seeds is a fine blend of fennel, coriander, flax, chia and fenugreek which is great for boosting metabolism and digestion. Three Tulsi packs the three most relevant tulsi variants – Rama, Vana and Krishna Tulsi, which are powerful immunity boosters.
The iconic British tea brand, known for its specialty teas, also has five other variants in its portfolio like Night Time, Root Remedy, Slim Tea, Chamomile and Peppermint. Each organic herbal tea contains natural ingredients, sourced from the finest organic certified farms. They are crafted by renowned herb and fruit master blenders with the purest ingredients. Typhoo’s focus is to provide holistic wellness benefits for both mind and body in a staple-free, dip-bag format, for quick and easy consumption. It is a natural fit for urban lifestyle where everyone is grappling with pollution and environmental degradation. The products are priced at Rs 210 for a pack of 20 envelopes and are available at leading food and beverage stores and popular online markets such as Amazon, BigBasket and Flipkart.
Tata Coffee Launches E-commerce Platform for Speciality Coffees
Tata Coffee Limited has announced the launch of its e-commerce platform www.coffeesonnets.com. Through this platform Tata Coffee aims to promote India’s finest reserve single origin specialty coffees. The website has debuted with three unique variants of luxury single origin specialty coffee named ‘The Sonnets – Voice of Our Estates.’ This platform will make the Tata finest estate coffees available to consumers across India. The coffees are directly sourced from two of Tata Coffee’s 19 estates located in Coorg region of Karnataka. These estates- Goorghuly and Woshully are recognized for growing some of the best Arabica Coffees in the country.
The Sonnets come in three different flavours and roast profiles (light roasted, medium roasted and medium-dark roasted) Gold Honey, Red Honey and Yellow Honey. Each variant in these reserve single origin handpicked coffees belong to a single estate and are not a blend. Since they are grown in specific regions using unique processing techniques, this makes them special and truly limited-edition coffees. These single estate coffees are processed uniquely with great care, undergoing intense sensorial evaluations by expert tasters. Only the finest and the rarest coffees are carefully selected to be used in The Sonnets range of coffees. The e-commerce site www.coffeesonnets.com is designed to give customers a smooth buying experience of these luxury coffees in a few simple steps.
Lasalgaon to get a Temperature-controlled Perishable Cargo Centre
Lasalgaon, which is the biggest onion market in Asia, will soon get a temperature-controlled perishable cargo centre. The centre is being developed under Central government’s scheme of the national cold supply chain for perishables. The project is being developed by Container Corporation of India Limited (CONCOR) through a CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) initiative. Lasalgaon, as well as Nashik, have a large number of exports especially for onions and grapes. The cargo centre will help to transport such goods with the help of the cold storage facility. The transportation of perishable goods like fruits, vegetables, milk products, meat and fishery products will be easy. About 98 reefer rail containers with a carrying capacity of 12 tonne per container have been procured through CONCOR for movement of fruits and vegetables to different parts of the country.
In the recent Budget session, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman proposed to set up a ‘Kisan Rail’ through the public-private-partnership (PPP) mode for a cold supply chain to transport perishable goods. The cargo centre at Lasalgaon is being developed under the same pattern of (PPP). The cargo centre is being developed as a pilot project under the ‘Kisan Vision.’ Under the scheme, the Central government is developing infrastructure in the form of cold storage warehouses at both the source and destination centres for seamless transportation. It is expected that with the cold storage facility the farmers in the district will be benefitted. The cargo centres and the rail containers will be supplementary to each other and will help to increase exports and commerce in the region.
HCCB and UNDP to Expand their ‘Plastic Lao, Thaila Pao’ Campaign to More Cities
Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages (HCCB) has helped to collect more than 30,000 kg of different kinds of plastics since the launch of its ‘Plastic Lao, Thaila Pao,’ campaign in October 2019. The plastic has been collected from nine locations across seven cities of the country in the first phase of the multi-city social awareness campaign. HCCB is working in partnership with United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and various other NGOs and local municipalities. In 2020, under its plastic waste collection programme, the company aims to expand from 25 to 50 cities of the country. The second phase will soon be kicked off in Goa, Jodhpur, Aurangabad, Mumbai and Chennai. The cities covered in the first phase included New Delhi, Varanasi, Ghaziabad, Patna, Bhubaneswar, Hyderabad and Kolkata.
The campaign is in sync with Government of India’s Swachh Bharat Mission. People bring plastic waste products to the mini material recovery stalls, set up in different locations and get recycled cloth bags as per the exchange rates defined. They are given one cloth bag for each set of 10 PET bottles, 10 pieces of mixed plastic products, 20 pieces of multi-layered plastics, (of at least 100 gm and above), 20 small mixed plastic products or 15 pieces of plastic bags (of normal size of 1-2 kg carrying capacity). The campaign sends out the message that plastics have inherent value and they need to be recovered and recycled. Eventually, in partnership with UNDP and several NGOs and government agencies, the company aims to gradually establish Swachhata Kendras.
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