Sarda group to expand snacking products basket

Nashik-based Sarda Group, one of the leading players in the ayurvedic FMCG segment, is all set to expand its 'Yogi brand' of snacking products portfolio.

The Rs 105-crore company is planning to add 15 more products to its current basket of 17 products.

"We have recently test marketed our new products in Mumbai, Pune and some parts of North East, and the response has been encouraging. Especially, our new ayurvedic mouth freshener "" Kanth Cool "" has been accepted well. We will be launching the product, which comes in three flavours ie elachi, pan and menthol, by January 15. The other products including Vita Mango and Vitaimli candies, test marketing for which would be done next month, would be launched by April after assessing the response," Sandip Sinha, chief operating officer of Sarda Group, told Business Standard.

The company, he said, at present had the capacity to manufacture 1,20,000 sachets of Kanth Cool per day, and was planning to scale it up to around 5 lakh sachets per day in a couple of months.

"We are planning to pump in close to Rs 10.65 crore in installing additional machinery for scaling up the production capacity of Kanth Cool at our existing plants in the next four months," he said.

Sarda Group currently has two manufacturing plants "" one in Anand, Gujarat, and the other in Nashik, Maharashtra. It has invested around Rs 15 crore in R&D of these ayurvedic snacking products in the last three years.