Anmol plans biscuit unit in Uttaranchal

Anmol Bakers Pvt Ltd, manufacturers of the Anmol brand of biscuits, is planning to set up a production facility in Uttaranchal and is also eyeing units in Kanpur and Lucknow.

"The company has applied for a 5-acre plot in the Rudrapur industrial area in Uttaranchal. We plan to invest Rs 8 crore in the proposed facility to produce 1,000 tonnes of biscuit per month," said Gobind Ram Choudhary, managing director of Anmol Bakers Pvt Ltd.

According to Choudhary, the company is planning to use the production facilities of bakers in Kanpur and Lucknow to produce around 400 tonnes of biscuits per month.

The company produces 4,000 tonnes of biscuits a month at its Greater Noida facility and aims at add 500 tonnes of biscuits a month capacity unit this month. Anmol Bakers produces around 6,000 tonnes of biscuits at its Kolkata facility.

Anmol products, he said were available and being liked in most of the northern market.

The company entered the Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir market in September 2004, Rajasthan in April 2005, plans to make forays into Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat in first quarter of 2006. The company, which clocked Rs 160 crore turnover in 2004-05, is targeting Rs 250 crore topline in 2005-06.

Remarking that the Rs 6,500 crore biscuit market is growing at a rate of 10-12 per cent, he said all major bakers are in the process of expansion to meet the increasing demand. The unorganised sector accounted for Rs 2,000crore market, he added.

Attributing the growth in demand to urbanisation, rise of nucleus families and changing lifestyle of the middle class, he said "such is the demand that most biscuits are getting sold at the production facility itself."

According to industry sources, among northern states consumption in Delhi and Uttaranchal was Re 1 per person per month and in other state 40 paise per person per month. Re 1 per person per month is considered fair in the developing nations with strong food traditions.

As most of the produce is consumed in the domestic market itself, hardly any biscuit is exported. The import, according to him is also negligible because of local taste and preferences.

Though Kraft, the British biscuit maker which was global leader in the sector, had conducted a study of Indian market, foreign companies were not expected to enter India because of the "highly localised taste, preferences and customer loyalty," he said.

Local players would give them a tough competition and they would have to run for their investment, he added.

According to Choudhary, while Britannia and Parle were leaders with both accounting for Rs 1,600 crore market each, Anmol Bakers was the fifth largest player after PriyaGold and ITC (Rs 300 crore each). Another major player in the arena is Crimica at Rs 100 crore market.