Dukes bullish on Uttarakhand facility

Dukes Foods Limited, the Rs 100-crore brand owned by Hyderabad-based Ravi Foods, expects its recently commissioned manufacturing facility at Rudrapur in Uttarakhand to propel its growth in the near future.

Backed by modern automated equipment imported from Europe that has been installed at the Rudrapur plant, the biscuits, wafers, chocolates and confectionery maker is gearing up to introduce more products in the fast growing premium segment, besides looking at entering the contract manufacturing business this financial year.

"The plant has the capability to produce high-end products such as centre-filled chocolates, which we plan to launch in the last quarter of this fiscal. Besides, we are lining up three to four more products in the segment, which are currently in the R&D stage, early next year," Vikas Agarwal, chief executive of Dukes Foods Limited, told Business Standard.

The company recently launched 'Dukes Desire cookies' "� its first premium product "� in three variants. It has sold around 60 tonne of Desire cookies so far. Considering the response to the product nationally, it plans to double it by this fiscal end.

The Rudrapur plant, set up on a seven-acre land at an investment of around Rs 40 crore in February 2007, has the capacity to manufacture 10,000 tonne of chocolates, and 5,000 tonne of confectionery and wafers each per year. The company currently has seven manufacturing facilities in Hyderabad with a combined capacity of 1 lakh tonne of biscuits, 5,000 tonne of chocolates and wafers each, and 10,000 tonne of boiled confectionery.

Stating that the company was actively looking at entering the contract manufacturing business through its Rudrapur facility, Agarwal said they were currently in talks with two FMCG companies in India and abroad for the same.

According to Ashok Sopori, head (business development and marketing), the company sees significant potential for growth in the industrial chocolate market too.

"There is little competition in the organised industrial chocolate segment, which is currently pegged at Rs 100 crore, and we are looking at this segment as another growth area. With the commissioning of our Rudrapur facility, which enables us to penetrate the northern and western regions of the country, we expect this segment to contribute around Rs 30 crore to our sales this fiscal," he said.

Dukes is also planning to set up a joint venture manufacturing facility in east Africa to cater to the African market. "We are currently in talks with three companies in east Africa, which are in final stages. We should be starting the project in three-four months," he said, adding that the company was in the process of formalising the investment objectives with the JV partner.