Dabur Foods plans ready-to-cook foray

Dabur Foods, a wholly owned subsidiary of Dabur India plans to enter into the ready-to-cook segment. However, the products offered by the company would be purely vegetarian in nature.

"The ready-to-cook food segment has a better potential than the ready-to-eat-segment in a country such as India where the housewife would like to have some kind of involvement in the cooking" said Amit Burman, the chairman of Dabur Foods.

The company is currently studying the market to chalk out the proposed foray. We are likely to launch our products in this category by June-July next year, Burman added. However, the investment details are yet to be finalised.

With the retail market in the country all set to expand in another couple of years, the company aspires to showcase its products in all of them. The company has tie-ups with retail chains such as Foodworld, Nilgiris, Subhiksha, Big Bazaar, etc.

With big retail chains coming into picture, the role of distributors would become irrelevant, which would allow us to share a higher margin with the big retailers, says Burman.

Dabur Foods is a major player in the Indian packaged fruit juice market with a share of about 55 per cent. The company is also selling a range of cooking pastes and garnishing ingredients.

According to the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci), the ready-to-eat segment is estimated at Rs 100 crore and is set to grow at a rate of 70-80 per cent for the next few years.

Basmati companies such as Kohinoor Foods and LT Overseas have also launched a wide range of products in the ready-to-eat category. Other major players in the segment are ITC, MTR and Haldiram's.

They mainly produce Basmati rice pulao, biryani, chana, dal, sweets, paneer, chicken and mutton dish, and south Indian dishes.

Most of these products are also being exported as they are in high demand in prime retail chains across the world.