India has become a lucrative market for multinational food companies. With India being the second fastest growing economy, companies do not want to miss this golden opportunity to take a share in this boom. Companies are accelerating investments, pushing distribution and fine-tuning strategies to capture the huge middle income population. Major companies such as Unilever, Nestle, Procter & Gamble, GlaxoSmithKline, Kellogg’s and Yum! Foods have named India as a critical market as sales from US and Europe have been stagnant.
Frits van Dijk, Nestle SA’s head of Zone Asia, Africa and Oceania announced in an investors’ conference that the company would invest about 1.5 billion Swiss francs ($1.35 billion) in India, Brazil, Russia and China between 2010 and 2012. Nestlé touched over 2.2 million Indian customers last year. It plans to set up a new research and development centre in India in 2012.
Yum! Brands Inc, which owns KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell restaurant chains, plans to invest $100 to $120 million in India. The company said they plan to open 1,000 restaurants employing around 50,000 people by 2015. The company expects a profit of $100 million from India by 2015.
World’s largest cereal maker Kellogg’s international business head Paul Norman said, “India was set to become the capital of heart health and diabetes over the next decade and the company would use its brands to build its presence in India, France and Mexico.”
P&G plans to target one billion new customers by 2015 from India and China. One of the company’s spokeswoman said, “The bigger picture here is that there are almost seven billion people in the world today and we reach only half of those. As we strive to serve the remainder of the world’s consumers, India becomes an important destination.” GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare plans to invest over Rs.270 in India over the next 3 years. Unilever also plans to focus on the Indian market.
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