The Hindu Business Line : AB Mauri plans innovation centre in Bangalore

Hyderabad, June 29 British bakery food and ingredient supplier, AB Mauri today said that it plans to set up a India innovation centre in Bangalore that would cater to its in-house R&D requirements and also to clients located globally.

The R&D centre would work on food related research and enzymes that go into bakery products. The centre is likely to be operational next year.

OutsourcED work

The Director of Marketing and Business Development, South and West Asia, AB Mauri, (formerly Burns Philp India), Mr Binu Varghese, said that the centre would mainly aim at outsourced work and take up custom research.

Addressing a press conference here, Mr Varghese said that AB Mauri, a subsidiary of Associated British Foods, UK, a $1-billion company, has made two acquisitions in India and continues to scout for more acquisitions to broaden the product range.

The company logged revenues of over Rs 120 crore in India and sees itself rapidly growing with the boom in the retail sector.

No manufacturing PLANS

However, he said that the company had no plans to set up any manufacturing plant for breads in India, as its believes that it would get into direct competition with some of the companies to whom it supplies ingredients.

Just like the campaign that encouraged people to eat eggs, AB Mauri plans to launch a Rs 4-crore ‘Bread for Life’ campaign that drills home the message that bread is a healthy food, be it for kids or the elderly. The campaign, he said, would be backed by television commercials.

Alongside, the company announced its plans to launch a slew of products covering bread mixes and other bakery ingredients.

All through, the focus was on large manufacturers but now it proposes to reach out to smaller stores, including retail outlets, with its products.

To cater to much larger user segments such as bakeries and retail stores, in addition to bulk supplies, the company is in the process of expanding capacity at its Chiplun plant.

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