britannia: Britannia aims five-fold growth in cheese business in next 5 yrs
Bakery foods company Britannia Industries expects its cheese products business to grow around five-fold in the next five years to touch around Rs 1,250 crore. The company which earlier this week announced a joint venture with the French cheese maker Bel, currently has around Rs 250 crore turnover from its cheese business, said its Vice-Chairman and Managing Director Varun Berry on Thursday.
It is hoping commodity prices will come under control going forward with the softening of palm oil prices while that of sugar are stable although wheat prices are on the rise, he told PTI in an interaction.
The company is foreseeing consumption growth in cheese segment coming from the domestic consumer and has plans to invest Rs 160 crore in the next three years, said Britannia Industries Executive Vice-Chairman and Managing Director Varun Berry.
“We have already invested Rs 150 crore in plant and machinery. We are looking at investing around Rs 160 crore in the next three years,” Berry said.
According to Berry, presently the cheese market is very small, estimated to be around Rs 2,500 crore from the consumer side and another Rs 2,500 crore from the B2B sales, largely dominated by QSR chains.
“But it is growing rapidly with a CAGR of 22 to 23 per cent. It is definitely a blockbuster in making,” he said adding “this (consumer) market in next five years should be closer to Rs 15,000 crore in the next seven years.”
Even if the company gets a substantial share of that, it would be a “great achievement” for the company, Berry added.
“We are looking at growing at least five times in the next five years,” he said.
When asked about the present size of Britannia’s business in the cheese segment, Berry said, “It is about Rs 250 crore.”
Britannia and Bel had earlier this week announced to enter a 51:49 JV by selling a stake into its wholly owned subsidiary BDPL (Britannia Dairy Private Limited).
Following this, the entity has been renamed Britannia Bel Foods. The JV will…
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