Balan to expand product lines

Balan Natural Food (B natural), a Bangalore-based packaged food products company, is expanding its basket of products in the domestic market. It is also making its foray overseas.

The company, which has recently launched 'Spicy Butter Milk' under the brand name 'B Natural', is now launching a mango drink under the same brand. Available in Tetra Pak, the B Natural mango drink is priced at Rs 10 for a 200 ml pack.

"Mango is a pan India fruit. It is quite natural for any fruit juice company to include a mango drink in its basket of products. This product will help us get closer to the people," said A Nandaa Kumar, chairman and managing director, Balan Natural Food (P) Ltd.

He said the company would close the fiscal 2005-06 at Rs 10 crore and achieve Rs 40 crore business target by 2008 March. "We will reach out to top 100 cities in the country in the next three years."

The company has set up a Rs 16-crore production facility to pack 3 lakh packets per day near Bangalore.

He said the company, a new entrant in the Rs 500 crore fruit juice and drinks market, was doing well with a basket of 10 products in its portfolio.

The company is the first to launch musk melon juice in India. By December end, the company would have 15 products to offer.

The company has used a unique marketing strategy for its new mango drink. The name of the product is written in 10 regional languages. For example, in Kannada it is written as 'Maavina rasa', in Hindi it is called 'Aam ras'. The product name is also written in Urdu. "Probably we are the first company in India to write the name of the product in Urdu language also," Nandaa Kumar, an NRI entrepreneur told Business Standard.

The company is presently working on new combinations at its laboratory in Bangalore.

"We are working on introducing 12 new products, which are under trial. We wish to introduce products using all fruits and vegetables," he said.

Balan Natural Food is presently working on a ready-to-drink vegetable soup, which will be launched by December this year. It is also launching a 1-litre tetra pack for all its juices by December.

By 2008, Balan Natural Food aims to become a nationally known brand with distribution network spread in over 500 districts across the country with over 50 brands. At present it's products are available in over 10 states.

"Our aim is to offer something for every age group. For kids we have yoghurt drink under Miruna Yo brand name, for elderly we have buttermilk under the B Natural Spicy brand and for the youth and health conscious category we have vegetable juice under the B Natural brand," adds Nandaa Kumar.

Balan Natural Food has recently received an export order from Singapore and Malaysia for export of vegetable juice, butter milk, guava drink and yoghurt drink. Its vegetable juice has received a very good response during the test marketing in Malaysia.

The first consignment worth Rs 10 lakh is being sent in early October to Malaysia and Singapore, he said.