Emami to foray into packaged cooking oil market

Emami Group today cut its teeth on food business by introducing packaged cooking oil.




Bollywood actor Preity Zinta launched six variants of the ‘Healthy and Tasty’ brand oil in Calcutta.



Zinta and Indian cricket captain M.S. Dhoni will endorse the edible oil, which has already hit the stores.



Manish Goenka, director of Emami Biotech, said the television commercial, shot by adman Prahlad Kakkar, would go on air in the next fortnight.



The group hopes to clock Rs 300 crore of business from the branded oil business in the first year itself and then raise it to Rs 1,500 crore in three years. Emami is producing palm and soya oil at its own refinery in Haldia. The rest of the variants are being outsourced now. However, Aditya Agarwal, director of Emami, said the group was setting up a refinery at Krishnapatnam in Andhra Pradesh, where palm and sunflower oil would be processed.



It also wants to build another refinery on the west coast, preferably at Pipavav in Gujarat, for palm and ground nut oil to tap the entire market.



Agarwal said the group aimed to invest Rs 1,000 crore in next 3-5 years in farming, processing, refining and brand building in edible oil.



It has begun cultivation in 4,000 hectre plot in Ethiopia for growing corn, maize, soybean, jatropha, sunflower among others.

Source :PTI