Surya Food to raise Surat plant capacity

Surya Food and Agro, which manufactures Priya Gold buscuits, plans to invest Rs 4 crore to increase manufacturing capacity at its Surat plant from 25 tonne per day to 40 tonne per day.

B P Agarwal, chairman and managing director of Surya Food, said: "We will increase capacity of the Surat plant in the next three months and invest Rs 4 crore for the upgradation of the plant".

Surya Food will launch advertisement campaigns in the print and electronic media from April. "The company has allocated Rs 10 crore for marketing and brand building," Agarwal said.

"Our strong distribution network has helped us chart our way in western parts of India, especially in Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan," he added.

Agarwal also confirmed the company's plan to set up a manufacturing unit in Uttaranchal. "Apart from two units in Greater Noida and one each in Lucknow, Faizabad, Surat, Nadiad, the company plans to set up a manufacturing unit in Uttaranchal. It should commence production by the next fiscal."

Agarwal said the company is gearing up to take on the stiff competition in the biscuit market with the entry of ITC.

"Biscuits prices have remained almost constant for the past few years. In few categories, the prices have actually fallen "" ITC is selling its 100 gram Sunfeast pack for Rs three," he said.

Agarwal urged the government to exempt biscuits from excise levy. Unorganised players command 45 per cent of the Rs 4,000-crore market for biscuits and capacity utilisation is only 60-65 per cent due to prohibitive costs of operation, he said.

Surya Food has bagged a contract from Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation for supplying biscuits.

The ISO 9000-2001 company is targeting a 50 per cent sales growth to Rs 300 crore in this fiscal. It expects to log a turnover of Rs 500 crore in 2005-06.

Priya Gold recently received International Quality Crown award at a function in London.