Western food items maker Dr Oetker India Pvt Ltd on Tuesday said it is aiming to increase its revenue by nearly 70 per cent to Rs 500 crore within next three years on the back of rising demand of its products.
The wholly-owned subsidiary of a German conglomerate is seeing double-digit growth in India at a time when other FMCG companies are witnessing sluggish sales.
"We have been growing at a healthy rate on the back of our products and marketing innovations. While many FMCG companies are reporting slowdown, we have witnessed high double-digit growth in 2019," Dr Oetker India Managing Director and CEO Oliver Mirza told PTI here.
This strongly establishes that Western and Indo- Western food prepared at home are fast evolving as significant new categories in the country, he added.
"We are expecting to touch Rs 300 crore revenue in this year compared to Rs 240 crore in 2018. In the next three years, our target is to cross Rs 500 crore mark in sales," Mirza said.
He said that though most of its sales come from the Indian market, but the company also exports some of its products to Bangladesh, Nepal and other SAARC countries.
More From This Section
The company has recently pumped in Rs 300 crore at its plant in Rajasthan that has an installed capacity to produce 46,000 tonnes of food items every year, he added.
"At present our plant is self-sufficient and we are utilising only 50 per cent of the total capacity. In the coming years, we will be investing around Rs 50 crore to upgrade and install new machineries," the CEO informed.
Dr Oetker recently conducted a survey in India through market research firm Ipsos with a sample size of 1,000 households already consuming non-home cooked western foods in the last one month across 14 cities.
As per the findings, 79 per cent of households preparing western food do it at least once a week and it is mostly consumed during evening or dinner times as a full meal, while about 19 per cent consume western food in breakfast.
"Among the western food choices, Italian is the most preferred cuisine prepared at home (36 per cent), followed by continental (30 per cent), American (30 per cent) and Mexican (3 per cent). However, American is the most tried cuisine to prepare at home at 72 per cent," it added.
The report said that younger people are embracing western foods more with seven out of 10 such consumers are below 30 years of age.
"Another significant finding of the study is the validation of the arrival of the 'Indo-Western Food', with western sauces finding their way into Indian cuisines and emergence of 'fusion food'," the report said.
It said that 97 per cent of urban Indians preparing western foods were found to be mixing western sauces with Indian foods.