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RTC major ID Fresh scouting for next rd of funds to tune of Rs 150 cr
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Tuesday, 16 August, 2016, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Nandita Vijay, Bengaluru
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fiogf49gjkf0d fiogf49gjkf0d ID Fresh, a ready-to-cook packaged food major, is scouting for its next round of funds to the tune of Rs 150 crore. The 16-year-old firm, which raised Rs 35 crore from Helion Venture, has a presence in 14 cities and is now slating further market expansion and new products.
The company has seven manufacturing units, including two facilities in Bengaluru. The others are located in Mangaluru, Chennai, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Dubai. The Bengaluru plants handle the Mysuru, Coimbatore and Kochi markets.
In order to widen its product offerings and accelerate its sales, the company recently announced its foray into paneer and curds, for which it has identified Nilgiri Dairy Farm, recognised for its high-quality milk.
“Although the market for paneer is competitive, there is an absence of a natural version. We intended to enter this niche space with our own paneer processing method using lime. That is the traditional way to prepare it,” P C Musthafa, chief executive officer, ID Fresh Foods, said.
“We have a well-aligned strategy in place before we opted to incorporate paneer and curds into our product portfolio of fresh ready-to-cook packaged foods, which includes idli, dosa, chapati and parota,” he added.
“We have a distribution chain in place and a presence across 15,000 stores in the country replenishing stocks on a daily basis. Paneer and curds are yet another extension to our product range,” Musthafa said.
“The brand ID Fresh is devised to make cooking convenient and a pleasure. There is a gap in the market when it comes to natural homemade paneer, and we wanted to fill it,” the ID Fresh chief added.
“Our popularity for paneer and curds will depend on the quality and positioning of the brand. We identified Nilgiri Dairy Farm going by the good manufacturing practices (GMP) and spare capacity to produce paneer for us,” Musthafa stated.
“Incidentally, Nilgiri Dairy Farm is known for its curds and paneer too. That would contradict our product offerings. Specifically for paneer, the development and ingredients are unique to our company,” he added.
Paneer is indispensable in a vegetable menu. It is also the largest category by volume and value after liquid milk in the country. “The market for paneer in Bengaluru is Rs 200 crore, which indicated the number of customers and the demand for the product,” Musthafa said.
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