Fieldfresh Foods eyes kiranas to ramp up distribution presence

NEW DELHI: Fieldfresh Foods, a joint venture between Bharti Enterprises and Del Monte Pacific, is looking at ramping up its distribution presence via grocery and kirana stores as it chases growth amid a slow macroeconomic environment.

"Growth rates have come down for sure. We saw slowdown in modern trade... on the other hand general trade is growing. We are under-penetrated in the general trade sales network, we see a lot of headroom (for growth) there," FieldFresh Foods Pvt Chief Executive Officer Yogesh Bellani told PTI.

General trade channel is made up of grocery and kirana stores.

"This year, our focus would be on increasing our distribution from this channel which accounts for huge bulk of sales network," he added.

Talking about the importance of general trade sales channels, he said: "At present 60 per cent of its sales comes from general trade and 40 per cent from modern trade. With our focus on increasing distribution through general trade, we expect it to go up to 70 per cent over the next 12-18 months."

The company, a 50:50 venture between Del Monte Pacific Ltd and Bharti Enterprises, recently refurbished its range of emulsions which includes mayonnaise, for retail customers with more product offering and new packaging.

At present, 50 per cent of the company's revenue come from business to business (B2B) customers like quick service restaurants and rest 50 from business to customers (B2C) or retail customers.

On new launches, Bellani said that the company would add more products under its beverage offerings.

The Del Monte range offered in India includes fruit drinks, packaged fruits, ketchups and sauces and the Italian range of gourmet pasta, pasta sauces and olive oil.