Mamta Foods' plant in Baddi to start by June

The proposed Mamta Agro Foods fruit-processing plant in Baddi will be commissioned by June this year. The company has acquired two acres for the plant. The tetra pack packaging equipment has been imported from Sweden. Other machinery will be in place by the end of May.

Mamta Agro Foods is investing Rs 15 crore in the project, which will be larger than its existing facility at Bhubaneshwar. The Bhubaneshwar unit has the capacity to produce 60,000 packs a day. The new plant will have the capacity to produce 100,000 packs a day.

Talking to Business Standard on the sidelines of the launch of the company's new herbal drink Power Berry, Ajay Kumar, general manager, sales and marketing, Mamta Agro Foods, said the juice market in India was growing at an exponential rate.

The Orissa plant was insufficient to meet the demand of the growing market, he said, adding that the expansion in the north would help them cut logistics to cater for the north Indian market. The favourable tax structure in Himachal would be an added advantage for the company, he further said.

Kumar was in town to roll out premium-segment herbal juice Power Berry Madrid, made from seabuckthorne berry grown in Ladakh.

The company entered into an exclusive tie-up with the Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO) for technology transfer of this new drink.

Mamta Agro Foods has three premium segment herbal juices "" Aloe Vera, Safed Musli and Power Berry "" under the brand name Mardid and general fruit juices under the brand name Jooz.

The company exports to Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal and is entering the UK, the US and European markets by the end of next month. There is a huge demand for herbal juices in developed countries, said Kumar.

The company clocked a turnover of Rs 10 crore last year in the health and energy drink segment. It is expected to touch Rs 25 crore this year. The substantial increase in the sales revenue is expected to come from network expansion in the domestic market.

"Our operations were restricted to Orissa, West Bengal and the north-eastern states. But now we are present in 16 states and by the end of this month the company will enter four more states," he said.

He informed that the 1000 ml herbal drink pack was more in demand than the 200 ml pack.

"The company has decided to increase the production of herbal drink from 30% of the total output to 50% keeping in mind the burgeoning demand for herbal juices," said Kumar.

Kumar also said the company would soon launch a low calorie herbal juice for the health conscious.

The low cost 200 ml pack was making inroads into the rural market, he added.