FieldFresh Foods, which sells Del Monte brand of packaged food and juices, is looking to expand its presence beyond urban areas and larger stores with affordable offerings targeting the mass market.

Skewed more towards the premium-end, Del Monte’s fast moving offerings include sauces such as tomato and mayonnaise, juices and nectars, olive oil and pasta. Its distribution covered modern retail and larger stores.

FieldFresh Foods is a joint venture between Bharti Enterprises and Del Monte Pacific Ltd.

According to Yogesh Bellani, Chief Executive Officer, the company has recently come up with sachet offerings in the mayonnaise category priced at ₹4.

It is also exploring the carton format (in one litre and 200 ml offerings) in the juices segment. Both the smaller packs are targeted at the affordable pricing segment.

Unlike most countries, smaller packs or low unit priced offerings have generally seen greater traction here. In case of juices and beverages, PET bottles and cartons have been the most popular options.

“We will look at a deeper distribution and reach out even to the smaller neighbourhood stores,” he told BusinessLine .

Del Monte, traditionally has been focussing on cans/tins as its primary format in juices. But, compared to the more popular cartons, cans come at higher price points.

While a can was priced at ₹35 for a 240-ml, cartons, on the other hand, came at ₹20 for 200 ml. Naturally, growth was smaller for cans, sources say.

Accordingly, the company, in order to ensure higher traction and deeper distribution for its offerings has started experimenting with the cartons apart from cans.

“So far, we have introduced cartons in the 200-ml and one litre formats in North Indian markets. Pricing wise we will be at par with competition,” Bellani said.

Cans/tins, however, will continue with focus being on the out-of-home and B2B segments.

Similarly, the company hopes to replicate the success of having small value tomato sauce sachets (it sells nearly one billion sachets annually across retail and B2B formats both) in the mayonnaise category.

It is in talks with various quick service restaurants (QSRs) and home delivery companies to adopt these smaller offerings.

With the dust settling post implementation of GST and demonetisation, Del Monte is already witnessing growth again.

Growth, Bellani says, is in the “20-22 percent range”. Recoveries have been good ahead of the festival season.

“From mid-30 per cent in October 2016, growth fell to around 17-18 per cent post demonetisation. It further dropped in Q1 ahead of GST implementation. But, Q2 onwards we are witnessing growth again,” he said.

comment COMMENT NOW