Kolkata-based Rs 650 crore Amrit Group, is in the process of investing Rs 300 crore over the next three to five years to mark its foray into the processed food segment including ready-to-eat and ready-to-cook products.
The company currently operates primarily in the animal feed business that comprises nearly 80 per cent of its revenues. It has 12 animal feed mills across West Bengal, Bihar, Orissa, Jharkand, and Uttar Pradesh with an installed capacity of one million tonnes per annum. I enjoys a market share of 27 per cent in eastern India.
Amrit Group's managing director Harish Bagla informed that the company has started its dairy business through a third party manufacturing unit recently before its own greenfield plant comes up in Howrah next year. The Rs 30 crore plant will have a capacity of processing 100,000 litres of milk every day. "We would churn out products like curd, ghee, ice-creams among others," Bagla said.
West Bengal consumes nearly 40 lakh litres of milk everyday and the industry is clocking a growth of around 4 per cent. "Of this only 10 lakh litres per day is processed, and the state's per capita consumption is also low at 126 gram as against a national average of 230 gram. So, we see a huge potential for growth", Bagla said. The products would be marketed under the 'Amrit Fresh' brand.
The Group plans to have nearly 50 per cent of its revenues from the processed food segment in the next five years. It is scouting for proper locations to set up a meat processing plant but nothing is formalised as yet.