Archana Sharma – New Delhi
In its effort to bolster the presence of the brand Tropolite in India, Tropilite Foods (TFPL), the flagship company of Davars Group, has chalked out an extensive expansion plan. To begin with, the company plans to enter the frozen bakery segment and beverages industry apart from entering the consumer retail market for few of their products. Elaborating on the new products range, Abhishek Ahlawat, GM – marketing and strategy, Tropilite Foods, stated, “We are going to add another division to our bakery and confectionery section with a frozen bakery range of ready products in a frozen form with one year shelf life. Also, we are going to add a concentrate food juice line with the shelf life of 10 months.” The frozen bakery range will be launched in April while the concentrated juice was launched at AAHAR 2015.
Talking about entering the retail sector, Ahlawat informed that after receiving a positive response for Flexi creme, their non-dairy cream product, launched about two years ago, for the institutional segments, they are looking at launching the same in smaller packs for the Indian retail market. “The non-dairy creme is a superior replacement of the dairy available in the market and is a completely unique product in India with zero cholesterol. Also with a shelf life of nine months, it provides a better solution across all segments,” he added. Tropolite will also be launching their pre-mixes and bakery and confectionery ingredients in the Indian consumer retail market through retail chains like Savemax etc. by June 2015.
Highlighting the need for the frozen bakery products, Ahlawat said, “In a lot of major cities, QSR’s face issues of insufficient space and infrastructure for kitchens and therefore are looking for ready-made solutions.” Talking about the potential of this segment, Ahlawat believes the metro cities to be better suited for the frozen bakery range, however, with the advent of QSR’s and international chains across tier II and III cities, he feels that the product will be widely distributed.
Talking about the distribution network of Tropolite, Ahlawat boasted of having more than 120 people in the marketing team and over 100 distribution channels covering almost the entire Indian market, even the extreme North Eastern region.