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Sudha Menon

Pune , Nov. 18

THE Rs 1,300-crore Venkateshwara Hatcheries group is all set to further establish its leadership position in the industry with plans now being firmed up to kick off the country's first venture to manufacture vitamin and mineral pre-mixes for poultry, pets and cattle segments.

The Group Chairperson, Ms Anuradha Desai, told Business Line that the group was giving final touches to a plan for setting up an integrated pet food manufacturing plant in Pune which will tap the huge demand for high quality foods for the country's pet population that has been growing at the rate 25 per cent for the last five years.

Ms Desai said a new company, B.V.Feeds Supplement Manufacturing co Ltd, would manufacture 4,000 tonnes of vitamin and mineral pre-mixes for the animal feed industry that currently depends on individually developed recipes to meet the nutrition requirements of this segment. The group will invest Rs 12 crore in the new venture.

"The plant will be operational from December and we have already set up a distribution network in Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka where there is a large demand for the product," Mr P. Singh, Executive Director, said, adding the company expected a revenue of Rs 30 crore in the first year of operation from this business.

Meanwhile, the company is also planning to indigenously manufacture a range of pet foods. Ms Desai said the venture, being taken up by a group company, Venkys India Ltd, would leverage the group's strength in the poultry business and manufacture pet feeds using in-house egg powder and chicken. The company is investing Rs 8 crore to import plant and equipment for the venture from Switzerland and plans to initially manufacture dry pet foods for the Rs 150-crore market.

The pet food business in India at the moment has huge potential and we plan to bring down prices by over 30 per cent with the indigenous production, Ms Desai said, adding that plans were also in place to eventually manufacture semi-moist and canned food and later venture in medicaments for the segment under the Venky's Pet brand.

The company's venture into manufacturing pet foods in India is the second phase of its agreement with Australian Feed Rite Pty and Natures Gift Pty. The first phase was a marketing agreement with the two, whereby the former was importing and selling a range of pet foods under the Royal Pet brand name in India.

The new venture was expected to go on stream by March, Ms Desai said.

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