Food firms see appetite for health, nutrition products

Can Nestle go beyond Maggi? While recovery in the March quarter has been led by the popular noodle brand, the company hopes for a different revenue mix in five years. One of the country’s best-known packaged food companies, Nestle, may no longer just be a food player. The company is set to evolve into something bigger as it looks to shed its ‘food’ tag. The move comes as Nestle increasingly becomes cognisant of the pitfalls of depending on one brand alone. In this case it is ...

The rush for prohibition and the Supreme Court’s decision to ban liquor sales within 500 metres from highways have hurt companies. IMAGE: At around 65,000 licensed liquor shops across the country, India’s outlet penetration for spirits per 1,000 people is low, sector experts say. Photograph: Vivek Prakash/Reuters. India’s move to be austere when it comes to its drinking habits seems to be driving liquor companies up a wall. After seeing its slowest growth in over a decade in ...

Cola brands look for life in a parallel universe. Global majors Coke and Pepsi are going all out to stock up with health and nutrition offerings. IMAGE: Coca-Cola North America’s chief technical officer, Nancy Quan, in an interview on the company’s website says that the research team has been aggressively focused on reducing sugar and calorie content while maintaining the taste factor. Photograph: Zainal Abd Halim/Reuters. The summer of 2017 may well be one of great reckoning for ...

After Patanjali, ITC and Coke, PepsiCo eyes value-added dairy products A growing list of companies is eyeing the rapidly growing value-added dairy industry. The segment is dominated by Amul, Mother Dairy and Nestle, but Patanjali, Coca-Cola and ITC have forayed into this space in the past year. With the likely entry of PepsiCo, the market is turning out to be a crowd-puller. ITC forayed into value-added dairy last year with Aashirvaad ghee. “The intention is to craft differentiated and ...

The company plans to overhaul business and rationalise costs in a bid to reach parent Unilever's new profit targets, reports Viveat Susan Pinto.   The country’s largest consumer goods company, Hindustan Unilever, is expected to take a multi-pronged approach to parent Unilever’s mandate to boost profitability and shareholder returns. This includes aggressively pruning costs as well as rationalising its workforce as it looks to implement the parent’s target of being a ...