ITC seeks to grab more space in kitchens with branded goods
NEW DELHI: ITC Ltd, the Kolkatabased company with interests in cigarettes, packaged food, personal care, apparel, hotels and information technology, now wants to grab more space in your kitchen shelves with more and more Indians preferring branded packaged products over unbranded staples and ingredients for preparing food at home.
After staples, spices, instant mixes, ghee (clarified butter) and ready-to-cook meals, ITC has just entered the frozen food market with frozen prawns. This is just a start. With an average of one new category every quarter, ITC will have products in almost every segment – from frozen vegetables and frozen fruits this year to supplements like sauces, dips and condiments eventually.
“From low-sugar potato to dehydrated onions to processed mango pulp that are ‘super safe’. We hope to enter one new category every quarter,” said S Sivakumar, group head (agri and IT business), ITC. The company has launched frozen prawns under its brand ITC MasterChef that it created earlier this year to roll out export quality spices in India that are “super safe”. ITC already has a strong product line for Indian kitchens. “If a kitchen has all ITC products, we’ll have about two-third of the space in a kitchen. And, there’s huge scope untapped,” said Sivakumar.
While there will be more value –added and premium options of frozen prawns, ITC will not launch any other frozen fish or frozen chicken anytime soon. “The next could be dehydrated onions, and low-sugar potato, and may be some high valueadded ready-to-cook options, developed with ITC Hotels, under ITC MasterChef,” Sivakumar said.
The expansion is part of ITC’s larger goal of reaching ₹1 lakh crore revenue from its cigarettes and packaged goods business by 2030.
It has already lined up investments of ₹25,000 crore in 65 projects, including 25 factories for packaged goods, covering an area of 28 million square feet, according to the company’s annual reports.
While all its processed food, including frozen, will be under ITC MasterChef brand, it may look at creating a new brand for fresh vegetables and fruits which will also include organic products.
Besides ITC MasterChef, the company also sells staples under Aashirvaad, ready-to-dine meals under Kitchens of India, noodles under Yippee, juices under BNatural, premium chocolates under Fabelle and gourmet coffee under Sunbean.