Guiltfree Industries Ltd, the food focused FMCG company from the RPSG group stable, has forayed into the intensely competitive Indian ethnic snacks segment.
The company, which is part of RPSG Ventures Ltd, is rolling out 10 variants of the Indian ethnic snacks under ‘Too Yumm’ brand in the market and contracted Bollywood star Varun Dhawan to endorse them.
The category is estimated to be Rs 30,000 crore with a sizable part of it still belonging to the unorganised sector. Dominated by companies such as Haldiram’s, it is growing at a CAGR of 14-15 per cent.
Shashwat Goenka, sector head of retail & FMCG in RPSG group, said Too Yumm hopes to gain from the expansion of the category as well as churn from unorganised to the organised sector.
“We are looking at a revenue of Rs 100 crore in the first 12 months of operation,” he said while announcing the new foray. The Indian ethnic snacks will be available under sub brand ‘Namkeen’, under Too Yumm.
RPSG Group, led by Shashwat’s father Sanjiv Goenka, had entered the FMCG space with western snacks in 2017-18 and roped in Virat Kohli, who was then India cricket team captain in all formats, as the brand ambassador. The plank for the brand was ‘healthy and tasty’ snacks. For the Indian ethnic snacks, the company plans to play a similar tune.
“Our products are going to be free from palm oil and 35 per cent less saturated fat,” Goenka claimed.
Even though the group forayed into FMCG business with pomp, for the nine month ended December 31, 2022 the revenue of the segment stood at Rs 348.72 crore, 30 per cent higher than the same period of FY22.
However, segment losses widened from Rs 180.93 crore for nine months in FY22 to Rs 239.57 crore in the nine months of FY 23.
The cash burn appeared not to deter Goenkas to build on the start made before the pandemic. Snacks for kids will be an area they would be looking at and more launches under Too Yumm mother brand can be expected. “We will focus on snacks for the next 12-18 months. We expect both the western and ethnic Indian snacks to grow,” Goenka said, adding it would look at some of the adjacent categories thereafter.
