Amit Kumat, MD, Prataap Snacks, Yellow Diamond
Looking at present scenario how are you planning to expand your area of sales and production points across the country?
Distribution and Expansion is a never-ending continuous process. As far as the production points are concerned, today we have created sufficient capacities across India in all regions.
There is new technology being introduced every day in the market for increasing automation and food safety. What is the latest edition at your end in your existing units or in upcoming plants?
We are continuously working towards increasing automation and leading towards more hygiene both in our own plant and the 3Ps as well.
It has been observed that there are not many national brands in the snacks and namkeen segment in India. What are the reasons behind the slow expansion of the companies?
Today there are quite a few National brands in this segment. However, since local palettes & snacking preferences are different, there will always be some relevance for local & regional players.
Is the slow expansion also because of the local taste preferences? How import is the market research before going for expansion in newer territories?
Market research is extremely important for any large player before getting into new territories, new categories. As one becomes large, the cost of mistakes also become large, hence the preparedness is necessary.
As far as the local tastes are concerned. there are nationally few flavours like plain salt base, cheese base, tomato base & masala base…..these do universally well across India. However, there are lots of other flavours which are region specific. Any national player in this regard should adopt ‘glocal’ approach…..think global, act local.
In the lockdown period and thereafter during the unlock process, there was an acute shortage of labour in the food factories. What measures you are applying now to reduce manpower dependency?
There were labour shortage initially. However as time progressed towards normalcy, availability of labour has improved.