In the late 1950s, a ‘jeera’ (cumin) trader in Kolkata, Dhanna Lal Jain, saw an opportunity in packaged offerings. He began with ‘hand-cleaned’ jeera in consumer packs.

As the product gained popularity, Jain was nicknamed ‘Jeera King’ and his brand came to be known as ‘JK’.

Almost six decades later, the Jain family-controlled ₹150-crore JK Group — which owns the “JK Masale” brand of masalas and packaged spices — is firming up plans to expand nationally as well as internationally.

While JK Masale is well known in Bengal for packaged poppy seeds, the brand through a portfolio of 41 products across 125 SKUs enjoys a dominant 40 per cent market share in the Eastern region covering West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, and Jharkhand as aslo the North-East States. Additionally, it is present in Rajasthan, Karnataka, Delhi, Punjab and Chandigarh and has 7-8 per cent market share.

JK Masale’s products span categories like whole spices (poppy seeds, cumin seeds, and so on); grounded offerings like turmeric, cumin, and coriander; and blended masalas that include pav bhaji masala and chole masala.

“We intend to double our market share to 15-16 per cent within this fiscal through entry into new States, mostly in western India, and new launches,” Vinod Jain, a third generation member of the family and Director, Sales, of JK Spices told BusinessLine .

Regional tastes

At least five new variants across 15 new stock-keeping-units (SKUs) are expected to be added to its existing portfolio this fiscal.

The JK Group is also firming up plans to enter South India even if that means having a separate portfolio suited to the regional tastes. “R&D work to have such regional specific flavours and mixes has begun,” Jain added.

The masala and spices segment in India is still dominated by the unorganised players with 85-88 per cent of the market share. Organised players account for the remaining 12-15 per cent with Everest, MDH and Catch the major ones, nationally.

According to Jain, the target is to near double its turnover to ₹250-300 crore this fiscal.

Also on the cards is an expansion into international markets such as West Asia and the US.

JK’s international presence currently is limited to Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Thailand.

Exports account for 10 per cent or ₹15 crore for the JK Group.

The number is likely to double to ₹30 crore with the entry in new markets.

The company has three manufacturing units in India — one each at West Bengal, Rajasthan and Gujarat — with a monthly production capacity of 1,000 tonnes, which will be ramped up to 1,600 tonnes.

Marketing spend will be doubled to ₹2 crore in FY-17 (against ₹1 crore last fiscal).

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW