Within mini meals, it will look at the breakfast cereal, ready-to-eat, and snacks market, and also its protein platform, which includes plant-based meat and plant protein powders
Mumbai, NFAPost: Food and beverage major, Tata Consumer Products has narrowed its focus on five key categories in which it will plan its new launches, Business Standard reported.
These categories are its current core categories, which include tea, coffee, and salt; within the pantry, it will look at launches within pulses, spices, staples, dry fruits, and ready-to-cook; in liquids, the company will look at water and ready-to-drink.
Within mini meals, it will look at the breakfast cereal, ready-to-eat, and snacks market, and also its protein platform, which includes plant-based meat and plant protein powders.
“This framework enables us to develop a targeted understanding of our consumers, enhance our internal capabilities, innovate within established parameters, expand our total addressable market, and tap into new consumption occasions,” said Tata Consumer Products Chief Operating Officer Ajit Krishnakumar in an interview with Business Standard.
Tata Consumer Products Chief Operating Officer said the company has taken a strategic approach to identifying key platforms it wants to play in.
“After evaluating several factors, including market opportunity, category growth, profitability, our capabilities including distribution and R&D, and our overall competitive edge, we’ve narrowed the universe down to five key platforms,” said Tata Consumer Products Chief Operating Officer Ajit Krishnakumar.
Tata Consumer Products sees 5% of its sales come from innovation, and Krishnakumar said that the company managed to hit that number earlier than expected because it is actively working on launching new products.
He also explained that when the company looks at acquisitions, it goes through a specific lens, which includes if it will obviously make sense financially. Tata Consumer Products will also look if Tata Consumer can add to the acquisition and if it will be able to extract value by putting it into its own distribution. The company also looks at whether it will overlap with its production system or its delivery system.
Tata Consumer Products Chief Operating Officer Ajit Krishnakumar said that its focus for acquisitions will primarily be the Indian market. “Our primary focus of interest is India because we get the maximum bang for the buck, given our established brands, strength, name, and distribution among other strengths.”
He added that its international market plays an important part in the company’s overall portfolio. “It is not going to grow like India,” he said.
Last week, the consumer arm of the Tata Group was in the news for having an interest in acquiring a majority stake in ethnic packaged foods major, Haldiram Snacks Foods.
However, it clarified in a stock exchange filing that it is not in negotiations for an acquisition and added it evaluates various strategic opportunities for growth and expansion of the business of the company on an ongoing basis. Bain Capital declined to comment. Haldiram denied that the new company was on sale.
Last year, the company was also in the fray to buy a majority stake in packaged drinking water major, Bisleri, but later the deal fell through, and sources indicated it was due to high valuations.
