Ruchi Soya Industries Ltd, one of India's leading food and agro-based fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) players, entered a joint venture with J-Oil Mills Inc (J-Oil), one of Japan's leading edible oil companies, and Toyota Tsusho Corporation (TTC), one of the largest global trading companies in Japan.
Ruchi Soya Industries Ltd's board of directors consented to form the joint venture company, in which the Indian company will have a 51 per cent stake. J-Oil will have a 26 per cent stake, while the share of TTC would be 23 per cent. The joint venture company's board will have representatives from all the three companies.
It will be engaged in the production and marketing of high-quality, functional edible oils. Ruchi Soya's board also approved the sale and transfer of its soya processing business – currently based out of its plant situated in Shujalpur, Madhya Pradesh – to the proposed joint venture.
The joint venture plans to start supplying products to instituttional customers by the end of 2013, and launch high-quality consumer products in the Indian market in the second half of 2014.
Dinesh Shahra, founder and managing director, Ruchi Soya commented, “This alliance is an important step towards our business strategy of expanding our product portfolio by bringing value-added and healthier products. Ruchi Soya will provide raw materials and necessary marketing and distribution assistance to the JV. J-Oil will provide technical assistance and TTC, with its rich global experience, will provide management assistance for internal control and access to international markets through its network.”
Sumikazu Umeda, president and chief executive officer, J-Oil Mills said, “The main purpose of this investment is to start our first-ever business activity overseas in a promising country like India. J-Oil sees India as a vast and fast-growing market and has plans to establish as a leading company in the high-quality value-added edible oil segment.”
Yoshiki Miura, managing director, Toyota Tsusho Corporation, said, “Ruchi J-Oil JV provides us the appropriate crossover opportunity to leverage our business networks, product portfolios and skill sets. We created Global Vision 2020 in which we identified three business areas that we expect sustainable growth in. We aim to expand the food business to the life and community fields.”
