The Hindu Business Line : Vadilal expanding food processing capacities

Ahmedabad, July 23 Food processing and ice-cream major Vadilal Industries Ltd is expanding its capacities and is in talks with leading retailers, including Reliance, to supply frozen food in a big way at their outlets across the country.

The company, making exclusively vegetarian frozen and processed food, exported its 55 products worth Rs 25 crore last fiscal mainly to the US, Europe, the Gulf, Australia and New Zealand, which is projected to increase to Rs 40 crore this year. “We are focusing mainly on food processing and talking to seven or eight supermarket chains, including Reliance and Big Bazaar, for bulk supply through their outlets to the tune of Rs 15 crore in the next 2 years,” Mr Rajesh Gandhi, Managing Director, told Business Line.

Vadilal’s food processing plant at Dharampur in Gujarat currently manufactures 30 varieties of frozen and preserved vegetables like pea, 15 varieties of ready-to-serve curried vegetables like palak paneer and dal makhani and 10 varieties of frozen fruits. Set up in 1990, the plant’s ongoing expansion project, to be completed by December 2007, would increase its capacity from the existing 8,000 tonnes to about 13,000 tonnes per annum, he added.

The company, whose mainstay has been ice-cream, is also expanding its capacities at its Bareili (Uttar Pradesh) and Pundra (Gujarat) plants at a cost of Rs 15 crore. Its first phase of expansion will be complete in two months and the second phase will be taken up by March next year at an investment of another Rs 10 crore. This would increase its production capacity from the current 1.50 lakh litres to 2.50 lakh litres per day, Mr Gandhi said.

Besides, Vadilal is planning to expand its ice-cream parlour chain, Happiness, from the existing 100 outlets to 250 across the country in the next three years.

The turnover of the Group is expected to go up from Rs 200 year in 2006-07 to Rs 300 crore in the next two years.

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