Bikanervala aims global expansion

Rs 100-crore firm eyes outlets in Canada, Dubai

The Delhi-based Rs 100 crore company, Bikanervala Foods, is in the process of major expansion in India and abroad.

It is planning to open Bikanervala food outlets in Northern and Southern part of India and countries like Canada along with setting up manufacturing units at Hyderabad, Dubai and Canada for manufacturing traditional Indian sweets and namkeens.

The company currently has 14 outlets under the brand name of Angan restaurants in NCR Delhi, besides four in Nepal and two in Dubai. It started its operations in Delhi in 1950s.

It is planning to have its presence in all the major cities of Punjab, Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir in north within five years, besides expanding in southern states like Andhra Pradesh.

It would also be setting up a manfucturing unit in Hyderabad to cater to its outlets in the South India shortly. The outlets will be based on franchisee mode and supported through technical collaboration.

Talking to Business Standard, Deepta Gupta, General Manager-Retail, Bikanervala Foods, said, "We have recently received clearance from the Canadian Ministry of External Affairs for setting up an Indian fast food outlet-cum-sweet shop in Canada, which we would be setting up within 3-4 months. After the outlet takes off, within a year we plan to set up manfucturing base, that will help us in future plans in Canda and US also. Currently there are problems in labour laws there, but they would soon be sorted out. The Canada factory would service a chain of six exclusive Bikanervala outlets that the company proposes to establish in the US and Canada over the coming years."

The amount of investment in manufacturing unit in Canada has not been finalised so far. The factory is a joint venture with a Toronto-based NRI, who would also be a master-franchisee for Bikanervala's outlets in Canada.

It will also be establishing a manufacturing unit in Dubai to cater to its two outlets. The initial investment in Dubai would amount to approximately 5 million Dirham. The manufacturing unit would begin production very soon.

"Setting up an overseas production base at Dubai and Canada later on would help us maintain freshness in our products and increase their shelf-life for the consumer.," he added.

This is not possible in the case of exports, which normally involve a transit time of 5-6 weeks," he added. Further, under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the products manufactured in Canada will not attract any duty in the US.

Gupta said that while the raw materials for making sweets, such as khoa (partially dessicated milk) and paneer, would be sourced from Canada using local milk, the spices and other essential namkeen ingredients like roasted moong dal would be imported from India.

"We are exporting high quality Ready to Eat Snacks and Sweets in the brand name of Bikano. To expand our sphere of activities, we are on the lookout for new markets and buyers for our products. Currently, we are exporting to 18 countries including US, Canada, UK, Italy, Singapore Germany, Australia, UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Thailand, Hong Kong, and Malaysia among others. We plan to take this number to 30 countries within five years from now. Our exports are 10 per cent of our domestic sales. We belive that there is a huge potential for exports and huge demand for our products through retail outlets abroad mainly where large number Indian diaspora (1.6 million in the US, 0.9 million in Canada and 1.2 million in UK), We plan to achieve a growth rate of 50 per cent annually."