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Mapro to embrace innovative packaging
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Saturday, 27 May, 2006, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Ketan Thakkar, Mumbai
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hains across the country Mapro Foods Private Limited, one of the major fruit processors in the country conducted a survey in Mumbai to study organised retail and its future prospect.
Known for its quality and innovation in the fruit processing industry, the brand Mapro is a well-recognized brand in India. It is the leading processor of strawberries in the country. Its products include jams, crushes, squashes, syrups, dessert toppings and preserves.
Mapro recently employed a professional survey company R1 Retail to study nine leading malls in Mumbai namely Big bazaar, Spar, Spencer etc. to find out the current standing of the company and its competition in the modern trade. Mapro is already present in almost all the major retail outlets across the city, through this initiative it is planning to extend its reach in the organised retail outlets
Speaking to the Food and Beverage News about the objective behind conducting a survey, Sales Manager, S. G. Mandhre said, "One of the main aims was to study the organised retail segment and its future prospects and simultaneously find out the company's standing in the market vis-à-vis its competitors."
With over 40 years of experience in the fruit processing business, manufacturing variety of innovative and delectable jams, crushes, syrups and preserves in its own brand, the company is now looking at manufacturing products for other private labels from the retail industry. Mandhre said, "Mapro is very much aggressive in building a long term relationship with the modern trade with its present product portfolio. We are also looking at manufacturing food products for the other private labels in the organized retail, which has huge business potential. We are already in primary discussion with the leading retailers like Reliance and Raheja's (Hyper City) for the same."
Mandhre feels that the company can leverage its current set up with retailers to greatly enhance its brand visibility. Proper maintenance of shelf space and use of simple tools like shelf talkers and POP's can immediately push sales and increase brand awareness.
The survey revealed that Mapro and Kissan are the two major players in the market and they jointly share close to 70 per cent of the shelf space. There is a stiff competition between the two and both are neck and neck in most of the segments. In liquid category Mapro is ahead of Kissan whereas in jams it follows Kissan.
One of the key findings of the survey was the increasing importance given to innovative packaging. "Attractive and Innovative packaging was believed to be the reason behind the increasing sales in the shopping malls. At Mapro, we are looking at adopting these innovative packaging in order to make ourselves visible to increase the impulse purchase of our prospective consumers," said Mandhre.
He said conducting the survey proved very helpful as it helped them in framing future plans and policies for its endeavours in the orga-nised retail market. Just a few years ago, the company's presence in the retail industry was as low as two per cent of its production; today it stands at 10 per cent indicating the increasing importance given to the sector by Mapro
Mapro has been growing consistently at the rate of 25-30 per cent in the past few years; the growth in the first quarter too was close to 30-35 per cent and Mandhre is confident of growing by 100 per cent this fiscal.
He says, "Right now we have presence only in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Delhi, within next three years we are looking at having an all-India presence."
But for this to happen he feels it is very important for Mapro to adjust itself with the customer's changing mindset. "Today customer changes its tastes and preferences drastically so we have to be on our toes to meet the requirement of our customer and cope with their demands. And we are prepared to face this change," he concludes.
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