Veetee Fine Foods to enter frozen foods segment

Veetee Fine Foods Ltd, the Haryana-based exporter of basmati rice and other consumer food products, is planning to enter the frozen foods segment within an unspecified period.

The Indian arm of the UK-based group firm of the same name is initially targeting Indian snacks in the segment.

The company, which recently introduced a ready-to-eat range of food products, is presently in talks and R&D for the frozen snacks business.

"Frozen food business is itself in a very nascent stage in India. Since Indians would normally not like to go in for full-fledged frozen meals, we are looking to introduce frozen Indian snacks like frozen samosas and frozen pakoras. Depending on the discussions and the R&D work that is going on in the company, we could be launching these products anytime in this year or early next year," said Aayushman Gupta, chief executive officer, Veetee Fine Foods Ltd.

Veetee Fine Foods has already invested around $3 million to set up a separate manufacturing unit for RTE microwavable pouches at its plant at Sonepat in Haryana.

The plant has a capacity of 100,000 tonnes per annum of basmati rice and 6 million pouches per annum. In the first of year of the launch, the company is looking to manufacture 2 million pouches and will later double the production by next year.

According to Gupta, Veetee is the first company in the country to introduce microwaveable pouches.

The company has also tied-up with all major retail players like Spencer's, Big Bazaar and Reliance for marketing its products. In the next two years, Veetee looks to achieve at least 30 per cent of the RTE market in India, which is pegged at Rs 200 crore.

In the next two months, it also plans to launch ready-to-drink soups and sweets, said Gupta, adding that the company would only manufacture vegetarians food products and would not venture into non-vegetarian dishes.

Veetee exports basmati rice and now RTE pouches to around 50 countries and is aiming for 70 per cent exports for its RTE products.

At present, the company has introduced 18 dishes in RTE segments, comprising 15 curries and three rice dishes and is planning to introduce combo-packs of rice and curries as well.