The Hindu Business Line : Foods co AB Mauri bullish on rising bread habits

Chennai June 12 AB Mauri, an Associated British Foods subsidiary that supplies yeast and bakery ingredients such as flour mixes and improvers for breads, pizzas and cakes, is gearing up to cash in on the country's retail boom and the concomitant growth in the convenience foods business.

Speaking to Business Line, Mr Colin Simmonds, Business Development Director, AB Mauri, said the company also wanted to cash in on the growing health-consciousness. The company is investing more in the business here in India, hiring more employees and launching a marketing campaign aimed at getting consumers to eat more bread.

AB Mauri is spending $2 million on building an innovation centre in Bangalore. Its second (after the one in Chiplun), centre will not only focus on research and development but also cater to client companies which want help with recipes and products.

It has three factories in Chiplun (Maharashtra), Sikandrabad, near Delhi, and Kalyani, near Kolkata. Capacity is being hiked by 35 per cent in these units.

The company believes the bakery products business will grow "phenomenally" - more malls are coming up; awareness of the virtues of wholegrain and other health breads is growing and several bread chains are eyeing/entering India, says Mr Binu Verghese, Director (Marketing & Business Development - South & West Asia), AB Mauri.

The segment has been growing at 8 per cent for the last two years, not taking modern retail into account, but with that included, AB Mauri expects it to grow at 12-14 per cent.

The company hopes to clock a Rs 125-crore turnover by the end of its fiscal in August this year from the previous year's Rs 106 crore. AB Mauri's global turnover is $1 billion, Mr Simmonds said.

Mr Simmonds said the per capita consumption of bread in India was 2 kg; in China, less than 1 kg. In contrast, the figures for Saudi Arabia and Chile are over 100 kg, 70 kg in Western Europe and 55 kg in the UK.

The company is launching an ad campaign with the slogan `Bread 4 Life'. It would focus on how bread is an all-time snack, doesn't need any cooking time and is a choice of food for all ages. Ad agencies will soon be called for a pitch and the campaign is expected to take off in a month's time, on a Web site, at points of sale and in print. There will be event-based marketing as well. At a later stage, the company may consider roping in its clients (pizza chains, bread chains, FMCG companies and so on) to partner it in the effort, he added.

May partner retail chains

The company may even partner various retail chains that want to establish in-house bakeries, Mr Verghese said, adding that it was in talks with many to supply them the raw material as well as package their private-label cake/bread mixes and other convenience foods. In India, the company has clients ranging from Nestle and Britannia to Pizza Hut, Subway, local bakery chains such as McRennet's and Adyar Bakery (in Chennai), and even much smaller, no-frills ones, he said, adding that the distribution network covered even the remotest areas in India.

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