Emami Agrotech to invest Rs 700 cr capex, forays into spices

Notwithstanding slowdown in the economy, Emami Agrotech is planning to invest Rs 700 crore as capital expenditure (capex) over the next 12 months for expansion of its edible oil capacity, a top company official said on Tuesday.

The company, part of the Rs 20,000 crore diversified Emami group, on Tuesday forayed into the Rs 16,000 crore packaged spices market leveraging its edible oil brand, 'Healthy & Tasty', under a sub-brand 'Mantra'.

"We don't see any slowdown in the food segment. We are going ahead with capex in both brownfield project at Haldia involving Rs 200 crore and a greenfield refinery at Kandla in Gujarat.

 

The combined investment in the two projects would be Rs 700 crore and will be completed in a year," Emami group Director Aditya V Agarwal said.

The company's edible oil capacity would be 10,000 tonnes per day from 6000 tonnes per day, after the expansion gets completed in the next one year, he said.

Agarwal also said the company did not find any slowdown in demand for bulk sales to the corporate, which accounts for nearly half of Rs 12,000 crore revenue registered last fiscal for Emami Agrotech.

Spices are high margin products, compared to edible oil and are synergised well with its existing brands and products, he said adding that the market for the packaged spices in India is growing at 15 per cent annually.

The Kolkata-headquartered company roped in national award winner Ananya Chatterjee for 2 years as a brand ambassador for the spices business.

"Masala (spices) falls in the high margin product category though it will remain as a small business in the company. In the next five years, we aim Rs 1,500 crore sales from the new category while we are looking at Rs 25,000 crore revenue for Emami Agrotech in three years," he said.

Speaking about the plans for the new business, the group's another Director Manish Goenka said initially spices is launched in West Bengal which is a Rs 1,100 crore market and growing year-on-year at a rate of 25 per cent.

"In the next 12-18 months, spices brand will be taken to national platform. The company is manufacturing it at Haldia facility and providing employment to some 200 people," he added.