The Hindu : Business : KCL wants to become a full-fledged foods company

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Saturday, Mar 22, 2008
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KCL wants to become a full-fledged foods company

K. T. Jagannathan

Plans unit in Tamil Nadu for packaging material

Emphasis on foods with flavour and local tastes
Looking at range of gluten-free products

CHENNAI: KCL Ltd., which has just made a foray into breakfast cereals space with the launch of Murginns brand through its subsidiary company KCL Foods, has acquired 12 acres at Cheyyar in Kancheepuram district of Tamil Nadu to set up a factory to make packaging material. According to Sanjeev Khemka, President and CEO, the packaging material facility will come up in over five acres. The rest of the land will be used to put up a foods facility. “This plan has yet to crystallise,” Mr. Khemka said.

The Rs. 200-crore KCL, among the largest paper packaging companies in the country, is converting about 6,000 tonnes of paper every month into corrugated board and cartons.

The company also manufactures Complan and Glucon D for Heinz, apart from making packaging cartons for a host of companies.

In an interaction with The Hindu, Mr. Khemka said KCL Foods made a soft launch of Murginns brand in July 2007.

Himachal unit

KCL Foods had a 600-tonne a month plant in Himachal Pradesh with an ability to have 12 different product lines as the brand scaled up, Mr. Khemka said.

He said the nascent KCL Foods was hoping to emerge itself as a full-fledged foods company. While it had no intention of getting into the lunch and dinner baskets with ready-to-eat foods, it would venture into functional foods, snack foods and namkeens with a definite “Indian taste” twist to it, he said.

KCL Foods has a range of breakfast cereals on offer — extruded products such as honey pops and honey rings, instant porridge, muesli and a recent launch of corn flakes and a planned one of oats. In addition, it has a wafer-kind snack food for kids called Ctix. KCL had just hit the market with its brand of Murginn’s cornflakes.

KCL Foods, he said, was also looking at a range of gluten-free products. The company would look at a launch of a new product every month and its home grown R&D department was throwing up ideas all the time. “The emphasis is on foods with flavours and tastes like local cuisine. We are definitely working on doodh jilabee, which goes with hot milk,” he added.

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