Emami launches spices products across India, aims Rs 700-1000 cr sales in next 3-5 yrs

New Delhi: Emami Agrotech Ltd on Wednesday announced launching its branded spices on a pan-India scale as it aims around Rs 700-1,000 crore business from the segment in the next 3-5 years.

Emami Agrotech, the branded food manufacturing arm of diversified Emami Group, launched Mantra Spices under the Emami Healthy & Tasty brand offering a range of blended powder spices and tastemakers.

"This is the first foray of Emami Agrotech outside the edible oil," said Emami Agrotech Director Krishna Mohan Nyayapati.

The company entered the spices market in 2019 before the Covid-19 pandemic and its products were available in West Bengal. Its present sales are around Rs 30 crore, he said.

Emami Agrotech would now compete with other FMCG makers such as ITC, Tata Consumer Products, MDH, Catch and Everest as the company takes Mantra Spices to northern, eastern and western markets leveraging its existing sales network.

"Overall the spice market, organised and unorganised, in the country is around Rs 80,000-90,000 crore. The brands play in around Rs 30,000 crore and are growing by 20 per cent every year," he said.

Consumers are moving from unpacked loose spices to packed spices offering lot of space for companies to deliver in this segment.

"Here we can play an important part and has the ambition to churn our Rs 700 crore to Rs 1,000 crore in next 3-5 years," Nyayapati said.

Emami Agrotech has around 700 distributors and covers around 2 lakh outlets and has plans to expand and add more in its sales network.

Emami is also looking for export opportunities for its Mantra spices targetting the markets having a sizable presence of Indian diaspora.

"There is a big export potential for export. We will evaluate this segment very soon," he said adding the company will form a different team to cater for the export potential.

The company is presently sourcing spices from mandi, however, Nyayapati does not rule out working with farmers after the business scales up.

When asked about the contribution that Emami Agrotech is expecting from the spices business, he said, "As we are expecting sales of around Rs 700 crore to 1,000 crore, it will contribute around 5 per cent in the next 3 to 5 years." Emami Agrotech had a turnover of around Rs 18,000 crore for the financial year ended on March 31, 2022.

"We have become number two edible oil company in the country. We are doing and has very high aspiration," said Nyayapati adding, "We are very bullish about our business." It is expanding its presence within the country.

Besides, like other makers, Emami has also slashed the prices of its edible oil following the directions of the government.

"We have almost dropped about Rs 20 to Rs 30 on various brands and various oils during the last 30 days," Nyayapati said.

However, he also added that "something is in the pipeline also and we would see them effected in the next two-three weeks or months in a place" The company has reduced the prices of soya and palm oil by Rs 20 to Rs 25 per litre, while on mustard oil the reduction is Rs 15 per litre.

"We will have to make further cuts. We will evaluate as we go forward," he said.

Earlier this month, the food ministry had directed edible oil companies to reduce prices of edible oil in line with the fall in global rates.