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News

India, Cremica: Interview with Chairman Akshay Bector

03/02/2023 - Press release , François-Xavier Branthôme

“We produce for the first time in India product meeting specifications of tomato paste from Italy, Spain and now USA; we are expecting growth 25-35% in next few years”

According to a recent article in the professional press, Cremica, in the course of the past three decades, has established itself as a food products conglomerate, leading the food processing business through its range of products, its internationally certified production facilities, the consistency of its quality and its unmatched expertise in the industry. It is also a preferred vendor to some of the largest food giants in India like McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, Domino's and Subway, consistently scoring high on international quality tests and taste parameters.

The company launched India’s first vegetarian mayonnaise and introduced Indian flavored sandwich mayo like tandoori and mint. It has also set up a 100 acre (40 hectares) food park in Una (Himachal Pradesh). It provides a platform for establishing backward and forward linkages covering the entire food processing value chain and implement best practices in post-harvest management. Akshay Bector, managing director and chairman, Cremica, reveals further details on the products, the food park and future business growth.

Akshay Bector, managing director and chairman, Cremica

How has the competitive landscape of the industry changed during the past few years?
“We are a brand leader in the mayonnaise and tomato ketchup space. We continue to grow rapidly in spite of very intense competition as the sector is played with overall investment. Due to Covid and other competitive pressures we expect this industry to rapidly consolidate and many of the weaker players are likely to go as a result of this.

The company has seen rebound in retail and HoReCa sectors. Can you give more details?
We have grown rapidly in the last year and the same continues. We are likely to grow more than 30%. Moving forward, the growth is compounded both by increased acquisition of new customers and also the volume growth driven by Cremica in many brands aligning with us. The retail segment is also valuing the high quality that cream makeup products represent.
The commitment to quality is deeply appreciated by the customers both in the retail and HoReCa segments.

Tell us about the largest tomato ketchup factory in India.
We are the only player in this segment to have integrated operations. Our state-of-art tomato processing plant in Himachal has been set up with an outlay of approximately Rs 200 crore (USD 24.5 million). It is the largest and most modern line in India. Our long standing relationships with the farmers has led to continuous improvement of specific tomato varieties enabling us to produce for the first time in India product meeting specifications of tomato paste from Italy Spain and now USA. The food park also allows us to rapidly expand operations at low cost moving forward.

Are you also into private labels?
Cremica started off as a company dedicated to the manufacture of sauces for McDonald's and subsequently engage with other fast food chains. The quality of the products was quickly recognized and very soon the products spread in the market. Cremica brand is today touching 4 to 5,000,000 customers on a daily basis, heavy penetration and leadership in HoReCa has led to a cult following of the brand which has led to huge recognition for the company in the retail segment. Today 80% of critical output is branded.
We are currently doing private labels for extremely quality-conscious export customers where products for selling better life review.

You are a preferred vendor to many leading brands. Could you elaborate on that?
We have deep commitment to quality and innovation. The ability to provide continued solutions has helped the company grow faster than the competition, this has led to symbiotic relationship with all our customers.

Your food park enables backward and forward integration. Please provide further details.
The food park has huge infrastructure and can enable future investments at a fraction of the cost of setting up stand-alone facility.

Your turnover is set to reach Rs 350 crore (USD 43 million) with growth at 15-20%. Can you please expand on that?
We look towards growing the business organically and expect the revenues to be at Rs 350 crore in FY23. The operation has grown 15 to 20% annually in the last many years barring the coventry with Covid moving into the background we are seeing the consolidation of sales from the competition and are expecting growth between 25 and 35% in the next few years. The company posted revenues of Rs 250 crore (USD 31 million) in FY22 and it expects to reach Rs 500 crore (USD 61 million) turnover by FY24.

Will you be moving towards green packaging alternatives, keeping in mind environmental concerns?
Environment is a deep commitment to comment. We were among the first companies in India in this segment to go for biofuels and water recycling. We are monitoring potential packaging and look forward to adopting relevant technologies with involved commitment to recycling seen from the fact that we have been early starter in contributing to the Venture Capital collection fund even before it was mandated by the Government of India.

What kind of research and development goes into your products?
Our history of innovation starts from element of the first vegetarian mayonnaise in the world followed by bottling pudding and enrich for the first time matching the taste and flavour of freshly produced product and also development of absolutely authentic cooking sauces. Cooking sauces are today more than million per day apart from this we have been the front-runner in India helping healthy options like use of oils and reduce the sugar content and salt content. Our team has been front-runner in the development of various options in almost every product.

What are the key driving factors and challenges in the industry?
We have seen the continuous application of capital in the industry creating a very brick and mortar field with high growth Internet space this has led to the rapid expansion of the market and Cremica gains from this being the leader and the front-runner we will now see a phase of consolidation and survival of the fittest.

Any plans for expansion and collaboration or new product launches?
The brand extends to pickles, ready-to-eat and -cook gravy snack foods - to be in all these segments is the next move.

Source: fnbnews.com

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