Capital Foods, a fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) company, is in talks to buy Pune-based processed foods company Chordia Food Products Ltd, which sells pickles, ketchups and instant mixes under the Pravin brand.
Kishore Biyani’s Future Ventures and the celebrated chef of Khana Khazan Sanjeev Kapoor hold 33% and 10% stake, respectively, in Capital Foods. The rest is held by Ajay Gupta, the founder of the company that owns brands such as Ching’s Secret, Smith & Jones, Mama Maria, Raji and Kaeng Thai.
Capital Foods CEO Ajay Kapoor said, ?We are not looking at buying out Chordia Foods. We have partnered with them for the proposed food parks in Hosur and Pune.?
Future Group plans to achieve Rs 1,000 crore from the FMCG business in the next three years. The proposed acquisition and food parks will be a part of this strategy. Capital Foods will oversee Future Group’s FMCG operations in the foods space in terms of production and distribution, a person familiar with the development said.
He also added that with the proposed acquisition, Future Group will gain a stronger foothold in Maharashtra. Future Group already owns Tasty Treat, Premium Harvest and Fresh & Pure in the foods space. Capital Foods and other investors had recently bought SK Brand from chef Sanjeev Kapoor.
Biyani is eying big on the food market by pushing for recipes of Indian origin with Kapoor’s decades of experience in preparing such delicacies while global companies sell products developed in the Western market where tastes and preferences are different.
Even as companies have been successful partly in establishing brands such as Kellogg’s corn flakes and Unilever’s Knorr soups in certain pockets of cities, the vast majority of the more than 100-crore population sticks to traditional delicacies.
Chordia Foods, started as a cottage industry in 1960 in Pune, sells ketchup and pickles under the Pravin, Navin and Toofan brands. The company’s product line includes spice pastes, sauces, milk shakes, custards and syrups. It operates a food park at Shirwal, 55 km from Pune that is equipped with infrastructure required for the food processing industry.