Packaged food company Kellanova India, formerly known as Kelloggs India, is targeting double-digit growth on the back of steady increase in household penetration in the breakfast cereals segment. The company is also planning to grow its manufacturing capacities in the country

The company is known for brands such as Kellogg’s and Pringles.

Prashant Peres, Managing Director, India and South Asia, Kellanova, told businessline, “We have been consistently increasing households penetration over the years in the breakfast cereals space. In fact, household penetration grew by more than 35 per cent in the recent period (MAT August 2023).”

In the past few quarters, the FMCG sector has witnessed challenges in terms of consumption due to inflationary pressures. “With inflationary pressures tapering off, we are hopeful of growing both consumption per household as well as household penetration, like we were witnessing in past and that will augur for a much better 2024 than 2023, “ he added.

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Peres added that the company continues to target double-digit growth rates. “In fact , parts of our portfolio are delivering very high double-digit growth rates,” he said.

The company said that penetration of breakfast cereals is still low in urban regions and there is a huge headroom for growth in metros and tier-1 towns.

“We are looking at making inroads in rural regions where we can, but our key priority is definitely to grow penetration in urban regions,” Peres said.

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The packaged food major currently operates two manufacturing facilities in India.

“We are looking to grow our India business substantially and grow our manufacturing capacities along with it. We have the ability to expand our manufacturing footprint at the existing facilities. We could potentially also look at a new location. Everything is on the table,” he added.

During the recently concluded World Food India event, various packaged food companies have inked MoUs with the government expressing intent to step up investments in India and increase food processing capacity.

In October, Kellanova, formerly known as Kellogg Company, announced the completion of separation of its North American cereal business, WK Kellogg Co, resulting in two independent and public companies.

“This split has not changed the India business per say and thus, our strategies remain the same. Potenitally, I think , Kellanova becomes a more balanced organisation between breakfast cereals and snacks and therefore one would possibly looking at getting a similar kind of balance in our business here. Right now, we are represented in snacks only with Pringles and so we could explore other opportunities,” Peres explained.

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