Snapshots of Food Industry News
Amul Planning to Set up Milk processing Unit in Northeast
The Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) is considering the idea of setting up a milk processing plant in the North East. GCMMF that owns the dairy product brand, Amul, has recently set up two processing plants in UP – one in Kanpur and the other at Lucknow. Another plant is likely to come up near Kolkata. Amul is investing about Rs.200 crore for each of these new plants. The processing plants in UP are likely to become operational within a period of six months. The Northeast plant could come up sometime in the future as right now the company is contemplating on the idea.
GCMMF already has 60 operational plants in the country. The Cooperative is expecting revenue of more than Rs.23, 000 crores this fiscal which has been possible because of the rise in volumes. Though the company exports value-added products to around 50 countries they get revenue of only about Rs.250 crore as they prefer to concentrate on the domestic market. GCMMF is also considering increasing the prices of their products as production cost has increased because of the cost of procurement, increase in prices of cattle feed and labor costs. The price increase could come later in the year.
Fast Food Chain Panda Express to Enter India
American-Chinese food chain Panda Express will enter India in partnership with Mumbai based JSM. JSM, that earlier introduced international food chains, Hard Rock Café and California Pizza Kitchen to India will now offer the Indian consumer American-Chinese cuisine. The company has signed up a franchise agreement with Panda Restaurant Group that owns Panda Express. California based Panda Express is one of the largest Chinese restaurant businesses in America with sales of over $2 billion.
In the next six months, major metros are likely to see a roll out of Panda Express outlets. The focus is on opening around 50 outlets over the next five years. Panda Express outlets are likely to be self-service restaurants so that operational costs remain low. JSM is backed by Wipro’s Azim Premji’s investment fund PremjiInvest and they own 30 outlets of eight brands like Hard Rock Café, California Pizza Kitchen, Pinkberry, Shiro, Plus9, The Big Kanuha, Asilo and Ginger Tiger. JSM is co-founded by Jay Singh and Sanjay Mahtani.
Big Fish Ventures Changing Delhi’s Dine-out Culture, new openings in the pipeline
Big Fish Ventures’ founder, restaurateur Umang Tewari, has changed the concept of a restaurant from the traditional to a place that is alive and happening and concentrates on experimenting with new food concepts. Big Fish Ventures runs premium dining lounges Biggest Vault Café, Garam Dharam, Public Connection, Junkyard and Three Pegs Down. Big Fish is expecting sales of over Rs.50 crore in FY 15-16 and over Rs.150 crore in FY 16-17. They have new launches in the pipeline and are planning on opening 10 restaurants in 2016 with new outlets like OMG – Oh My God. Older restaurants like Junkyard and Biggest Vault will have branches in new locations including Mumbai.
Big Fish has tapped into technology in a big way and they have an App through which they are in touch with 60,000 customers and will increase the number to one lakh in 2016. The App is used for a table reservation, loyalty offers, discounts and useful information on the outlets that customers like. They will also be launching a digital wallet in the near future which will provide value-added services to customers. The success of the company comes from making each food item different from the other. Their menu concepts match with the names of the restaurant and present food differently. Their ambiance is unique but they make sure that the services are pocket-friendly.
Prabhat Dairy Ties up with Future Group for Wider Market
Prabhat Dairy, the makers of Nilgiris brand of dairy products, has tied up with Future Consumer Enterprise Ltd, a FMCG company of Future Group, to provide a wider market for their processed milk and milk products. Prabhat Dairy Limited is an integrated milk and dairy products company that caters to institutional as well as retail customers. Prabhat will make these products available in retail packs as per the quality standards, branding and packaging specifications of the companies. Presently Tirumala (Lactalis India) has asked Prabhat Dairy to supply them sweetened condensed milk in tubes of different sizes, under the brand name of Lactel Sshup.
Prabhat has two state-of-the-art manufacturing units at Shrirampur, Ahmednagar, and Turbhe, Navi Mumbai which have fully automated production facilities. The company produces fresh, dry, frozen, cultured and fermented dairy products, including pasteurized milk, flavored milk, sweetened condensed milk, ultra-pasteurized or ultra-high temperature (UHT) milk, yogurt, dairy whitener, ghee, cheese, paneer, shrikhand, milk powder, ingredients for baby foods, lassi and chaas. The company supplies various dairy ingredients to contract manufacturers for institutional clients like Britannia, Abbott, ITC, and Mondelez.
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