Business Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Sunday, Aug 06, 2006
Business Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Sunday, Aug 06, 2006 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Corporate
-
Outlook Marketing - Retailing Godrej Agrovet to invest Rs 100 cr on expansion Debdatta Das
Farming plans The company has tied-up with Bajaj Allianze to provide life insurance coverage to farmers. It also plans to add an extra 5,000 hectares of land under palm oil plantation to the current 6,500 hectares.
New Delhi , Aug. 5 Godrej Agrovet Ltd, a subsidiary of the Godrej Group, has earmarked an investment of over Rs 100 crore for expansion in its seven divisions. Mr C.K. Vaidya, Managing Director of Godrej Agrovet, told Business Line that the company plans to open another 972 outlets from the current 28 `Godrej Aadhaar' rural retail outlets within the next five years with more focus on Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat and Maharashtra. This, he said, was a major expansion process since each of the Aadhaar outlets required an investment of almost Rs 30 lakh going up to Rs 1.5 crore.
Important tie-ups
He added that the company was looking at major tie-ups with other corporate houses that are willing to be present at the rural level. Godrej Agrovet has tied-up with Apollo Pharma to set up medical centres to usher in preventive healthcare through medical consultations with in-house doctors in the rural sector. It is also looking at increasing the number of these medical centres from the current three. The company has also tied-up with Bajaj Allianze to provide life insurance coverage to farmers, while an MoU has been signed with the State Bank of India for credit supply to farmers. Mr Vaidya also said that a PSU oil company had approached the company to retail oil and LPG through the Aadhaar outlets. Godrej Agrovet also plans to add an extra 5,000 hectares of land under palm oil plantation to the current 6,500 hectares, through its major plantation lands in Andhra Pradesh and Goa, and also through small pockets in Gujarat, Orissa and Mizoram. On its fruit and vegetable retail division, Mr Vaidya said that 10-12 new outlets would be opened by the year-end in Mumbai, in addition to the existing four. The company is also expecting to make its presence felt in other cities by the year-end. He added that as far as its plant biotechnology business was concerned, the major area of focus for the current year is banana tissue culture, apart from strawberry and potato.
All-around performance
On its frozen and ready-to-cook-snack brand, Godrej Real Good Chicken, Mr Vaidya said the company would take advantage of the sector's immense capacity for growth. He said that out of the total market size of Rs 12,500 crore of broiler consumption in India, only five per cent was held by the frozen chicken segment. The company owns 10-15 per cent of the five per cent market share in the frozen chicken segment and is looking to increase it by 20 times. Mr Vaidya said that in spite of the major expansion and good performance of the other divisions, the company's agri-feed segment accounted for almost 80 per cent of the turnover. Last year the company, including its subsidiaries, clocked a turnover of Rs 930 crore and expected the current fiscal to close at Rs 1,000 crore.
More Stories on : Outlook | Retailing | Poultry | Foods & Food Processing
Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page
|
Stories in this Section |
|
The Hindu Group: Home | About Us | Copyright | Archives | Contacts | Subscription Group Sites: The Hindu | Business Line | Sportstar | Frontline | The Hindu eBooks | The Hindu Images | Home |
Copyright © 2006, The
Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of
this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of
The Hindu Business Line
|