Marico sets sight on expanding food biz into Rs 850 crore portfolio

FMCG major Marico has set its sight on growing its food business into an Rs 850 crore vertical in the current financial year from the Rs 600 crore it made 2022-23 as the Parachute oil maker diversifies its portfolio, according to its latest annual report.  

“Going forward, we aspire to cross Rs 850 crores in revenues in the foods portfolio next year as we maintain steadfast focus on market development, brand building, supply chain excellence, distribution expansion and product innovation,” said Marico Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer Saugata Gupta in his letter to shareholders.

Marico’s notice of its 35th annual general meeting highlighted that the Company aims to ramp up its revenue from the foods portfolio to Rs 850 crores by fiscal 2024, after closing near the Rs 600 crore mark in fiscal 2023. It is also targeting to build a digital-first brand portfolio with an annual run rate of Rs 400-450 crores by fiscal 2024.

This comes as the FMCG player recently expanded its oats portfolio with the launch of Saffola Oats Gold, creating sub segments within oats to ride the government push for millets. With the new launch, they expanded their range of millet-based products, which already included offerings such as Munchiez and Saffola Masala Oats Karara Crunch.  

The annual report also pointed out that the company is actively driving diversification in both its domestic and international businesses to build long-term drivers of growth and insulate the business from portfolio/geographical concentration risk.  

“In the domestic business, the visible scale-up of the newer portfolios of Foods, Premium Personal Care and Digital-First segments has led to a shift in their share of domestic revenues from ~8 per cent in FY20 to ~15 per cent in FY23. We expect the share of these portfolios to move to ~20 per cent of domestic revenues in FY24.”  

“In foods, we have expanded the total addressable market of the brand ‘Saffola’ to Rs 10,000+ crores, through a portfolio of healthy value-added offerings. We aspire to scale our foods business to ~Rs 850 crores in FY24 as we maintain steadfast focus on market development, brand building, supply -chain excellence, distribution expansion and sustained innovation,” the annual report said.