Mahindra & Mahindra’s agribusiness subsidiary Mahindra Shubhlabh Services Limited (MSSL), which launched Saboro brand of fresh fruit business here on Thursday, is targeting a turnover of Rs 300 crore by 2016.
Under the Saboro (taste in Spanish) brand, MSSL plans to offer a wide range of fresh fruit, starting with apples and diversifying into grapes, bananas and other imported fruit. It is set to roll out its branded fruit nationally across 200 centres in a span of three years.
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Started in 2000 to service rural customers of M&M’s farm equipment sector, MSSL began exporting grapes from Nashik in 2005. It had exported 4,960 tonnes of grapes worth Rs 65 crore in 385 containers in the 2012 grape export season. It is expecting to export about Rs 90 crore worth of grapes in the current year.
Mahindra group’s agri & allied business chief executive, Ashok Sharma, said MSSL would tie up with large retail outlets across the country for the sale of its branded fruit. The company would not have its own retail stores.
He said MSSL was currently working with 1,000 grape growers from the Nashik, Sangli, Latur and Solapur regions of Maharashtra and helping them increase farm productivity. MSSL has a team of 60 employees including experts who “constantly evaluates the most critical quality parameters with regard to taste, freshness, appearance and shelf-life” of fruit.
With regard to price, he said Saboro fruit would cost a bit more than the good quality local unbranded variety but less than the imported one. For instance, he pointed out, the average price of Saboro apples at present was Rs 160-170 a kg, while the cost of local unbranded variety was Rs 140-150 and that of the imported fruit was Rs 210 a kg.