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Vadilal’s ready-to-eat snacks lure Indian consumers
Vadilal’s ready-to-eat snacks lure Indian consumers
Tie-ups with big retailers like Reliance, D Mart, Food Bazar & Star Bazaar
Ahmedabad,
Gujarat,
India
(prbd.net)
26/09/2011
Ice cream major Vadilal Industries Limited is now luring Indian consumers with its high quality ready-to-eat snack items like plain and stuffed parathas, samosas, kachoris and soon to be launched spring rolls. These frozen foods which were being largely exported to NRIs in the USA, Europe and elsewhere in the world are now witnessing strong demand from Indian consumers with the spread of organised retail chains and change in lifestyles with the rising number of working couples along with higher incomes.
Due to constraints in availability of cold storage logistics, Vadilal’s frozen foods under ‘Quick Treat’ and ‘Garden Fresh’ brands are currently available in the states of Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan at the outlets of Reliance, Food Bazar, Hypercity, D Mart, Star Bazaar and others. Over the next few months, the company will expand its reach to Delhi in the north and Bangalore in the south as these are two big markets for frozen foods.
Mr. Rajesh Gandhi, Managing Director, Vadilal Industries Ltd. said, “Sale of frozen parathas have zoomed from 100-200 cartons per month some time back to over 1000 cartons a month today. Similarly, samosa volumes have shot up from 400-500 in the past to 1500 cartons a month now. R&D is on to also make paneer, cheese and Malabar varieties of parathas. To cater to the strong demand for parathas in the domestic markets, Vadilal is going to invest in a new fully automated paratha line - right from encrusting, paratha-pressing to cooking and packaging.”
Mr. Devanshu Gandhi, Managing Director, Vadilal Industries Ltd. added, “Vadilal is focussing on increasing sales of value-added products like ready-to-eat snacks in its domestic products basket. Vadilal which was the first ice cream company to come out with the ‘buy one get one free’ offer has also extended this scheme to its frozen snacks products.”
The company is also targeting institutional business by supplying its frozen foods to premium flight kitchen service providers, chain of food outlets, ship chandlers and others.
Vadilal considers the freshness of food as the backbone of success. To preserve freshness and to enhance the products shelf life Vadilal uses the “Individually Quick Frozen” (IQF) technique to process food, which involves fluidized belt type continuous freezing. Vadilal’s manufacturing unit, at Dharampur in South Gujarat, has a capacity of 5400 tons per annum and Rs. 15 crore has been invested over the last two years for automation and upgradation of machinery and plant. In addition to the existing cold room, two more cold storages have been set up to cater to the growing need for frozen foods.
The company has employed state-of-the-art production technology and strives to adhere to international standards of quality, keeping optimum cost effectiveness in mind. This attitude has nourished Vadilal’s basic objective of becoming a global leader in Ethnic Indian Foods.
“The frozen foods market in India is expected to grow at 25-30% per annum over the next 5 years. The organized frozen food market size in the country is around Rs. 1600-2000 crore, with a significant chunk of around Rs. 500-600 crore being accounted for by non-vegetarian products,” said Mr. Devanshu Gandhi, who also happens to be the Co-Chairman, West Zone of the All India Food Processors’ Association for 2011-12.
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