Canadian frozen food giant McCain Foods will invest Rs 3.5 billion to increase production capacity at Mehsana in Gujarat, due to increased demand from McDonald's, Pizza Hut, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Subway and luxury hotels.
"We will be investing in a third line for manufacturing thereby increasing the capacity by more than two times," said Vikas Mittal, MD, McCain Food India. He is quick to say that the next round of investment will be after two years. The real core is to drive QSR (quick service restaurant) sales as eating habits are changing and people are now eating more frozen food."
Popular for its smileys and aloo tikki, the company has since 2006 till date invested Rs 1.4 billion in its Mehsana unit. With the proposed expansion, the workforce is expected to go up by 50 per cent. Vikas said that growth in demand across the retail sector as well as QSRs were propelling them to go for the investment. "As a pilot project, the company has launched a McCain kiosk in a mall in New Delhi and is likely to come up with a franchisee model of the kiosk selling McCain products. In food retailing, the returns are fast but we need to see that sales are good before we open up for franchising," he explained.
Selling both Indian and international range of products, the company has recently branched out to sell cheese-based snacks and is working to introduce lentil-based snacks. "To meet the need of the Indian consumer, we are coming up with products which are familiar but unique. We are setting a Research & Development centre in New Delhi for this purpose," Vikas said. He feels that the market is under-penetrated and the focus of the company was to help the market grow by educating consumers and also making frozens available at retail stores.
