Keventer Agro is planning to lay an aggressive thrust on its frozen foods business and grow sales by nearly 60 per cent during the current year, backed by an expansion of footprint and launch of region-specific products.

According to Sunil Kajaria, CEO, Keventer Agro, frozen food currently accounts for around five per cent of the company’s total turnover,. which stands at about ₹980-1,000 crore. Sales from the category, which is now close to ₹50 crore, is expected to increase to ₹75-80 crore during FY-22.

“We have been largely restricted to eastern India, but now we plan to expand our footprint in the northern and southern parts of the country. We have already started establishing our presence in Jammu and Kashmir, Chandigarh, parts of Uttar Pradesh and NCR in the north and Hyderabad and Vijayawada in the south,” Kajaria told BusinessLine .

The total market for frozen foods in India is estimated to be close to ₹7,000 crore, of which institutional sales account for nearly 70 per cent, and the remaining 30 per cent is contributed by retail. North India accounts for roughly 40 per cent of the estimated ₹2,100 crore retail market, west around 25 per cent, south 25 per cent while east accounts for approximately 10 per cent. The industry has been growing at around 8-10 per cent on a year-on-year basis.

Keventer Agro saw its business from frozen food segment more than double in the last financial year, albeit on a small base. The company is hopeful of increasing its sales to ₹200 crore in the next three years.

“We saw our sales double in FY-21 backed by the impetus received from eastern region as the pandemic has led to a shift in food consumption habit with people preferring to have ready-to-eat and ready-to-cook products,” he said.

Frozen food portfolio

Keventer Agro, which has a broad basket of products in its frozen food portfolio, including veggies like sweet corn, green peas, breads, sausages, veg and non-veg snacks, kebabs, ready-to-fry as well as heat-and-eat apart from potato-based products, is exploring the possibility of rolling out products specific to the needs of a particular region.

“In North India, people prefer more veg snacks which are potato-based and also parathas. We have a comprehensive frozen food portfolio and we also invest on R&D to come up with products based on the preference of each region,” he said.

The company will also invest in creating cold chain infrastructure and putting up retail freezers to support its sales. Keventer Agro, which is currently present across 580 modern trades and over 5,000 general trade outlets, is looking to triple its presence by adding 2,000 in modern trade and 10,000 in general trade in the next two to three years to strengthen its presence across India.

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