Having got good response for its mustard oil under ‘NuPro’brand, Mahindra Agri Solutions is now looking to extend the brand to soya oil. The launch will be exclusive to West Bengal.
The move comes as a part of the company’s strategy of establishing the brand in one geographical area (with a handful of products) before moving on to other markets.
Here in West Bengal, NuPro’s offerings were restricted to mustard oil only; while in Mumbai, it is just ‘tur dal’.
According to Ashok Sharma, President – Agri, Asia & South Asia Operations and MD & CEO – Mahindra Agri, the soya oil roll-out is expected to happen within this month.
“The soya oil will be launched exclusively for Bengal; and in the premium category,” he said, adding that it will look to leverage the distribution network that NuPro has created through its mustard oil variant.
Mahindra’s soya oil will take on Fortune, Ruchi among others in the segment, while in the mustard oil it competes with the likes of Emami.
“Our immediate focus will be to establish the edible oils brand in West Bengal before going elsewhere,” he said when asked if NuPro edible oils will be taken nationally or not.
Increased investments According to Sharma, the company will look to treble its investments on branding, packaging and in improving distribution network. A new advertisement campaign for NuPro (edible oils) is also being rolled out.
“In FY’17, we will spend three times of what we spent on the brand last year,” he said while pegging a figure to these investments.
The idea is to improve its position to be amongst the top three mustard oil players in the State. Currently, NuPro is amongst the top five brands in Bengal.
Mahindra Agri will also look to improve its distribution network from 8,000 retailers to 12,000 by the end of this fiscal.