The main feature of the relaunched cake mixes will be the price, which will be lower than the current level. The move comes in the wake of the company's manufacturing facility being commissioned next month. The facility, coming up at Nasik in Maharashtra, will reduce the cost component of the product. Previously, the company has been directly importing the cake mixes into the Indian market.

The company has invested over Rs 9 crore in setting up the manufacturing facility. ``This will enhance the indigenous content in the cake mixes to as high as 92 per cent, restricting imports only to certain crucial ingredients,'' Godrej Pillsbury president Ravi Sivaraman told The Financial Express.

At present, the cake mixes are priced at Rs 55 for a 250 gm pack which makes a 400 gm cake. The company is yet to evaluate the new price structure. The move is seen by industry observers as one to combat emerging competition from Bestfoods International which recently launched Brown & Polson cake mixes at a price of Rs 31.50 for a 250 gm pack.

Being largely impulse driven, the cake mixes market in India is at a very nascent stage with very low volumes. The size of the market is estimated to be over Rs 1 crore.

Says Sivaraman: ``Given that summers generally witness a dip in sales of cake mixes - after soaring during the festive seasons like Diwali and Christmas - we decided to relaunch the cake mixes in early June.''

Advertising for the cake mixes will be basically to attract consumers at the point of purchase at the retail end. At the time of the launch of Pillsbury Cake Mixes over a year back, the company had resorted to advertising the same through hoardings and direct mailers.

The company also has plans of launching a few value-added products in addition to the cake mixes in the Indian market, Sivaraman informed.